Fathers Don't Always Know Best
by Guenwyvar
Summary: Jim is kidnapped by a couple of guys who specialize in torture and who are out to punish bad fathers. And he's not the only one. With a little help from some new friends from California, can Blair and Simon find Jim before his time runs out? Updated from previous post on Cascade Library.


Fathers Don't Always Know Best

By Kim

Disclaimer: Jim, Blair, Simon, and all other characters don't belong to me. Any other characters do belong to me so if you wish to use them, please ask.

Los Angeles

Kane Stark walked across the empty parking lot toward his car. His was the only car in the university parking lot this time of night. He had been at the library late in order to finish his term paper, which was due on Monday.

He paused as he heard what sounded like rustling behind him. He turned around but saw no one. The wind picked up and Kane shivered. It was a cool night, unusual for Los Angeles this time of year. He pulled his brown leather jacket closer around himself and continued walking. It had probably just been the wind blowing the leaves in the trees, he reasoned.

He paused again. He thought he heard footsteps behind him, but when he turned, there was nothing. He sighed. It was just his overactive imagination, and that story about two men kidnapping people wasn't helping either. People had been disappearing left and right in LA these past few months and only a very few showed up alive. It had the entire campus on edge. It was just his nerves and his imagination playing tricks. Nevertheless, he picked up his pace, pulling out his car keys.

As he neared his car, strong arms suddenly wrapped around his neck from behind and started dragging him backward. Kane bucked and kicked, trying to get free from his captor, but the guy was too strong. He then elbowed his attacker in the ribs, and once he was free, kicked him in the side of the head. He didn't wait to see the guy hit the ground. He took off running toward his car. It wasn't until he reached the door and found it to be locked that he realized that he had dropped his keys in the struggle.

Oh shit, he thought as he heard footsteps coming up behind him. He felt something impact the back of his head followed by a blinding pain. He slumped against the car and slid to the pavement unconscious.

"In this breaking news story, a local college student, Kane Stark, has been reported missing after having failed to return home late last night. Stark was reported to have been at the library at the University of California working on a term paper. The librarian stated that Stark had been there at noon and had left around midnight. She also stated that she had not seen anything suspicious when Stark left.

"Stark's car was found in the university parking lot where he had parked it yesterday afternoon. There was no evidence of foul play; however, authorities did find a card with this symbol on the dashboard, leading the police to believe that Kane Stark was an apparent victim of a pair of kidnappers calling themselves the Doom and Gloom Brothers.

"Not much is known about the pair known as the Doom and Gloom Brothers. They kidnap four people at a time, and they torture their victims without restraint. Not many survive, and those who have don't say much. What they have told the police paints a nasty picture. According to our sources, the victims are put through a test, but it's not for the victims but for their fathers. The fathers are apparently asked a series of questions about their children, and the torture only begins when a question is answered wrong. If the fathers pass this test, their children are returned to them. If they fail, their child is killed. Investigators are no closer to catching…"

The TV was shut off. The four people that occupied the doctor's lounge at Community General Hospital shook their heads. It was a sad report indeed.

"I can't believe the police aren't any closer to finding these guys. How long has this been going on? Three months?" Dr. Jesse Travis sat on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees.

"They apparently don't leave many clues behind," Dr. Amanda Livingston commented from her seat next to Jesse.

"Yeah, well, I bet we would have caught them long ago if we were on the case," Jesse said.

Dr. Mark Sloan, who sat at the table next to his son, Lieutenant Steve Sloan, smiled at the young doctor with the dark blonde hair. He didn't look old enough to be a doctor, but despite his age, he was a very good doctor. "It's nice to know you have such confidence in us, Jess," he commented.

"Well, I think our record speaks for itself."

"Well, the fact of the matter is, we're not on the case. So we just have to sit back and watch," Steve said, taking a drink from his coffee cup.

"Yeah, I know," Jesse grumbled. "And I hate it."

Mark got up from the table and carried his empty cup to the sink. After rinsing it out and placing in the sink to wash later, he turned to his colleagues. "Well, back to work. I've got a few patients I need to check on."

Jesse, Amanda, and Steve got up as well.

"Hey Dad, don't forget about dinner tonight," Steve said.

"Don't worry. I'll be there. You just make sure you're there," Mark said with a gleam in his eye.

"Oh come on, Dad. That was one time, and I was involved in a shoot-out. It wasn't my fault."

"I'm just teasing you, son. I'll see you later tonight."

After Mark left, Jesse and Amanda turned to Steve.

"Have you told him yet?" Jesse asked.

Steve glared at him. "What do you think?"

"You have to tell him, you know," Amanda said.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just waiting for the right time."

"When's that? When you're walking out the door?" Jesse said sarcastically

Steve sighed. "No. I'm going to tell him tonight, ok? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to work too."

As Steve was leaving the lounge, he heard Jesse call to him, "Good luck." Good luck, he thought. Yeah, thanks, Jess. Like that was going to make this so much easier. He knew what he had to tell his father, he wasn't going to like. He was going to need all the luck he could get.

Mark put his fork down on his empty plate, having finished his meal. They had gone to one of their favorite Italian restaurants. It was good to get out. Both he and his son had been so busy lately that they hadn't had time to go out to eat. Unfortunately, the mood at the table wasn't good.

Mark looked at his son sitting across from him. Steve had finished half his food and was now playing with the leftovers. He could tell by the look on his face that there was something on his mind.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Mark finally asked.

Steve looked up from his plate. "What do you mean?"

"Look, it's obvious that there's something bothering you. I'm your father. I can tell these things. Now what is it?"

Steve put his fork down and leaned back. "Dad, I have something I need to tell you."

"Uh oh. I'm not going to like this, am I?" Mark could tell by his tone of voice that it was something bad.

"Dad, do you remember that Murder For Hire operation I investigated a couple of months ago?"

Mark's heart started pounding. Of course he remembered. There was this group of guys who killed people for money and made it look like accidents. Steve had been brought on the case after the officer that had been sent in undercover had turned up dead. Somehow, they had found out he was a cop and killed him. But they disappeared months ago. Why was Steve bringing it up now?

Slowly, Mark answered, "Yes."

"Well, they've turned up in Cascade, Washington, and the Chief wants me to go to Cascade and find out what I can."

"You mean undercover."

"Well, yeah."

"No." Mark shook his head. "No," he repeated.

"Dad…"

"No. You're not doing this. In case you've forgotten, the last guy who went undercover with these guys ended up dead. If they find out you're a cop, they'll kill you too."

"They won't find out I'm a cop."

"You don't know that." Mark knew he was being irrational, but these guys were brutal when they wanted to be. They didn't just kill that cop. They tortured him. They didn't make it look like an accident. They made sure he suffered before he died. Mark's protective instincts for his son overrode rational thought. "Why doesn't the Cascade police handle this?"

"This is my case!" Steve practically yelled, grabbing the attention of a few people at the nearby tables. He was getting angry now. He knew his father was worried about him, but he wasn't a kid and he could take care of himself. "And both police departments believe that I'm the best candidate for the job. I know these guys better than anyone. I'm not asking for your permission, Dad. I'm just telling you what's going to happen over the next few weeks. Now, if you'll excuse, I have to get home and pack. I'm leaving tomorrow." He stood up, tossed a few bills on the table to cover the bill and started toward the exit.

"Steve, wait!" Mark called after him, but Steve ignored him as he stormed out of the restaurant. Mark sighed and rubbed his face. I think I just made a big mistake, he thought.

Steve walked out of the restaurant and headed toward his car. He was glad they had taken separate cars because he didn't think he could stand to be cooped up in the same car with his father. He loved his father to death, but sometimes, he could get a little overprotective.

Why couldn't he just support his decision? Granted, Mark's fears were warranted, but this was Steve's job. It was his responsibility, and he couldn't just turn it down because he might get hurt. If he did that all the time, he wouldn't make a very good cop.

Steve knew that his father worried every time he went chasing after some bad guy, but he had never tried to stop him until now. Of course, Mark had been a little overprotective ever since Steve had been shot. He couldn't blame him for fearing for his son's life. He just hoped that he would be calmed down by the time he returned.

Steve was so focused on his thoughts as he headed to his car, he didn't notice someone watching him from an alleyway. The man smiled as Steve got into his car and drove off and then melted back into the shadows.

Dan Boone adjusted a few cables and then stood up to make sure all the equipment was working properly. He couldn't wait to get started with their tests. The Doom and Gloom Brothers was a complete success in his opinion. Everyone knew about them, of their lessons. Soon everyone will have learned their lesson without having to go through their tests.

They already had one victim. He glanced at the monitors. One showed a man lying in the middle of a small room. Kane Stark, he had been easy to take. He and his father had a terrible relationship. He was perfect. Now they just needed three more. He heard the door open. He stood up and headed to the front door to witness his brother entering the warehouse.

"Ricki, find anyone?" Dan asked.

Ricki nodded. "Yeah, I think so, but…"

"But what?"

"He's a cop."

"A cop, huh?" Dan seemed to mull this over. "Good."

"I don't know, Dan. Should we be going after cops? It seems kind of risky."

"No, it's perfect. It'll show everyone that no one, not even cops, are safe from us. What's his relationship with his father?"

"I don't know much, but he did just have a huge fight with his father not too long ago," Ricki reported.

"He'll do."

"There's another problem. He's heading to Cascade on an undercover assignment tomorrow."

"Cascade," Dan repeated. It had been a long time since they had been to Cascade. That city had been like a black hole on the map to be avoided at all costs for 8 years. It held a lot of bad memories for them. But maybe it was time to return. He looked at his brother. "I think it's time to relocate. We've been here long enough."

"Are you sure we're ready to go back there?" Ricki asked.

"We can't keep running from it. Besides, every city deserves to witness our tests, to learn."

Ricki nodded. "Looks like we're heading to Cascade. What about Stark?"

"We'll take him with us, and we'll send the equipment on ahead. And we'll have to find a good place to set up."

"We'll figure that out when we get there. I already have a pretty good idea on one location. Let's get packing. We're leaving right now. We have a lot of work to do," Ricki said, heading deeper into the warehouse.

Cascade

Blair Sandburg sat at the kitchen table in the loft apartment he shared with his best friend and Sentinel, Detective Jim Ellison. After studying an open book page, he started tapping out a rhythm on the table. He found out a few months ago after a case that Jim knew Morse code and asked the older man to teach him. He thought it would be a good thing to learn so that if they were ever in a situation where they couldn't talk to each other, they could still communicate.

Jim had taught him the different combinations for each letter, and Blair had been studying and practicing for weeks. He was at a point where he could understand it if it was done slowly and repeated once or twice. Now he was practicing on doing it himself. It was a long and arduous task, but he knew that it would come in handy someday.

Blair was interrupted in his practicing when Jim came through the loft door, slamming it, and tossing his keys into the basket by the door. Blair looked at his partner and saw the stony expression.

"Whoa, Jim. What's got you so pissed?" Blair asked.

Jim hung up his coat on the hook and walked into the kitchen without a word. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. He twisted the cap off, tossing it onto the counter, and took a long swig. Blair watched silently from where he sat. He knew that Jim had gone out to have dinner with his father, and by the looks of it, it didn't go well. Blair got up from the table and went to lean against the kitchen island facing Jim.

"What happened?"

"Nothing," Jim answered monosyllabically.

"C'mon Jim."

Jim took another drink from his beer. "Dad and I had a fight, ok?" He walked past Blair toward the living area.

Blair followed him. "You want to talk about it?"

"No," Jim replied quickly. He took a deep breath. "He said something I didn't like," he elaborated before going to sit on the couch and flipping on the TV.

"What did he say?" Blair asked carefully. He knew he was walking on the thin ice right now. Jim in this mood could be dangerous to one's health.

"Sandburg," Jim snapped. He stopped and sighed, trying to calm himself down. "Look, Chief, I don't want to talk about this right now. I just want to sit here, enjoy my beer, and watch a Jags game, ok?"

Blair backed off. "Alright. I won't press."

He went back to the table and sat down. Looking down at the books on Morse code scattered all over the tabletop, he smiled. He glanced at Jim and then proceeded to tap out a question on the table. He hoped he got it right and didn't just succeed in further annoying his friend. He concentrated on every word, but tried to do it fast so that he could get out all of what he was trying to say.

~Are you sure you are ok?~

Jim wasn't really paying much attention to the game on TV. He was concentrating on Blair's heartbeat, using the soothing rhythm to calm his nerves, but this incessant tapping intruded. At first, it was annoying the hell out of him until he realized there was pattern to it. He listened and discovered it was Morse code. He smiled a little as he translated the sounds into words in his head.

"Hey Sandburg," he called.

"Yeah, Jim?"

"Yes, I'm sure I'm ok," he answered.

"I got it right? You understood it?" Blair asked excitedly.

"Yes, I understood it," Jim replied, his smile growing.

"Alright!"

Jim laughed. "You're getting better, kid. But keep practicing. Just not tonight."

"Sure Jim."

Blair gathered his books and papers together and headed into his room.

The next morning, Jim and Blair had barely entered the Major Crimes bullpen before Simon was calling Jim into his office.

"Ellison," Simon beckoned.

Jim hung up his coat and went to Simon's office while Blair sat down at Jim's desk to get started on Jim's backlog of paperwork.

"What's up, Simon?" Jim asked.

"I'm bringing in more help for the Murder for Hire case," Simon reported.

"What? Captain, I don't need any help."

"Jim, you've been working on this case for, what, three months now, and even with your Sentinel abilities, you're no closer to tracking these guys down."

"Just give me more time, Captain. I can find these guys."

Simon sighed. "I know that, but it's out of my hands. The Chief thought it best that we bring in someone who knows this case better than we do to go undercover to try to nail these guys."

"Like who?"

"Lt. Steve Sloan with the LAPD."

"The LAPD?" Jim said incredulously.

"Look, we already knew that this all started in Los Angeles. Sloan was the lead detective on the case. He knows more about this case than anyone."

Jim just shook his head, moving to look out the window.

"I'm not taking you completely off the case. You'll be Sloan's liaison. If he needs anything, you'll be the one he goes to, and any information he finds out will be given to you."

Jim stood in front of Simon's desk, his rigid stance and stoic mask both indicative of how much he didn't like this plan.

"Look, Jim, I know you don't like outsiders butting into your cases, but this is going to happen. He's already on his way. He should be here pretty soon in fact. Try to be nice. The operation doesn't start for another couple days. Show him around the city, get him familiar with the landmarks, and fill him in on the case so far."

Jim sighed. "Yes sir," he replied tightly.

Blair was working on his fifth report when the shouting started from Simon's office. He could hear Jim's raised voice from where he sat. Uh oh, he thought, it must not be good if Jim's arguing. He didn't try to listen in on the argument. He knew he'd find out about it later. He continued with the paperwork. He was halfway through the report when someone approached Jim's desk.

"Excuse me."

Blair looked up at the tall, blonde man standing in front of him. Blair didn't recognize him, and then he noticed the badge clipped to his belt that said LAPD. LAPD? What's LAPD doing here?

"Yeah, what can I do for you?" Blair asked.

"I'm Lt. Steve Sloan, LAPD. I'm looking for Captain Simon Banks."

"Uh, he's in his office right now, but he's in a…meeting right now. You might want to wait."

"The LAPD?" Both looked toward the closed office door at the exclamation. Well, now Blair knew what this was all about. Whatever Simon was telling Jim had something to do with this Lt. Sloan.

"A meeting or an argument?" Steve asked.

"Uh, a little bit of both," Blair replied with a small laugh. "Have a seat." He waved at the chair he usually occupied when Jim was at his desk. "You're welcome to wait here."

"Thanks," Steve said, taking a seat.

Steve looked at the man sitting next to him, analyzing him closely. He was young, in his late twenties perhaps, with long curly hair. Steve tried to determine why someone like him would be here because he seriously doubted the man was a police officer. He just didn't look the part.

"Uh, you work here?" he finally asked.

Blair smiled. "Not exactly. I'm sort of attached to the department, more like a consultant." He continued typing the report he'd been working on.

Steve looked at the screen and then at Blair. "A consultant who does paperwork?"

Blair laughed. "Yeah, well, what can I say? Jim doesn't like paperwork."

"Jim?"

"My partner. Detective Jim Ellison. He's not very detailed. A detailed report to him would be, 'confronted the bad guy, chased the bad guy, and arrested the bad guy.' That's it."

"So you're more detailed," Steve commented.

"Yeah. I'm an anthropologist. I'm very good at detail. It doesn't bother me really. It's not that hard and it keeps every one happy. It keeps Jim happy because he doesn't have to do it, and it keeps Simon happy because he has a nicely written, very detailed report."

Just then, Simon's door opened and Jim left with a stony expression on his face. He approached the two at his desk. His eyes immediately went to the stranger sitting next to his partner, going over him intensely with his senses.

"Chief, who's your friend?" Jim asked.

"Oh, this is Lt. Steve Sloan with the LAPD."

Jim's lips tightened just a little, so little that only Blair noticed.

"Ah, so you're Sloan. You're the one who's going to be going undercover on the Murder for Hire case," Jim elaborated for his partner's benefit.

"Nice to meet you," Steve said, standing up and offering his hand to the Cascade detective. Jim shook it briefly. "Look, Detective, I don't mean to barge in on your case. I know what it's like to have other people butting into your cases. I've had it happen to me a time or two. I didn't ask for this. It was my captain's idea. Now, I'll admit that I jumped on the offer because I want these guys caught. They gave me the slip in Los Angeles. I don't want that happening here."

Jim stared at the blonde detective with his ice blue gaze. "Yeah," he said, coming around the desk. "I believe you. Simon wants to talk to you."

Steve glanced briefly at Blair, who shrugged helplessly, and then made his way to the Captain's office. Blair looked at his partner as they sat down.

"C'mon, man. Lighten up on the guy, Jim."

"What? I was civil."

Blair rolled his eyes. "Barely. Give the guy a break. This wasn't his idea. Besides, what would you do if a case you'd been working for months suddenly came to a dead end with no leads and no convictions and then started up in another city?"

Jim didn't answer.

"You know damn well that you'd want to be put back on the case, that you'd do everything in your power to try to catch those guys even if it wasn't your jurisdiction anymore. So don't take it out on Lt. Sloan just because you weren't chosen for this undercover assignment. God, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were in second grade or something." Blair muttered that last part as he finished up the report he'd been working on.

Jim chuckled. He had to admit, Blair was right. If it had been one of his cases that suddenly started up in LA, he would have been on the first plane out to the coast to do whatever he could to solve it. He supposed every cop would do the same, which showed just how dedicated the men and women of law enforcement were.

"Alright, Chief. I see your point," Jim said. "I'll ease up on him."

Blair smiled. "Good because he seemed like a nice guy to me."

The door to the captain's office opened and Simon and Steve stepped out. They walked across the bullpen to Jim's desk.

"Sloan, this is Detective Jim Ellison and his partner Blair Sandburg. You'll be working with them for the majority of the time you're in Cascade," Simon said.

"Yeah, we met briefly," Steve said.

"Well, good. Jim, why don't you show the lieutenant around the city. You know get him acquainted with the layout before he starts his assignment," Simon suggested.

"Sure, Captain," Jim said standing up. "Let's go, Chief." He grabbed his and Blair's coats off the rack. Handing Blair his coat, he headed out of the bullpen.

Steve stared after the man, now completely confused. He looked at Blair. "What just happened here? I thought I was going to have to fight him all throughout this case. I mean when I came in here, he was…"

"Cold," Blair finished for him.

"Yes, exactly. And now he's not."

"Well, Jim can be hard to read sometimes," Blair said. "You really have to get to know him to figure out what he's thinking and what he's feeling. Of course, then again, not even some of his friends can figure that out. He's not a very emotional guy. C'mon." He put a hand on the LA detective's shoulder, guiding him out the door. "I'll give you a few pointers on how to get on his good side."

After showing the visiting detective around the city, the three men ended up at one of their favorite restaurants along the beach for lunch. Blair had just finished his meal and sat back and watched and listened as the two police officers argued over which basketball team was better, the LA Lakers or the Cascade Jaguars. Blair had contributed at first, but this argument had been going on throughout the meal. Finally, Blair just decided to let the two argue it out on their own.

The two detectives had become friends surprisingly fast. Once they found some common ground, it was like they knew each other all their lives. When they found out they both enjoyed surfing, they spent two hours trading surfing stories. Blair had enjoyed listening. He had never been surfing before, and he found it interesting. Some of the stories were actually funny.

"Well," Blair interrupted the two men, getting to his feet. "As much fun as it is listening to you two argue, I really should be going. I have a class to teach this afternoon."

"I thought you had the day off," Jim said.

"I did, but a friend of mine asked me to cover her class for her and considering all the times she covered for me while I was out helping you, I figured I owed her one. I'll see you guys later."

"Well, do you need a ride?" Jim asked.

"No. I'll just take the bus. It's cool. You guys heading back to the station?"

"Yeah. Right after this."

"Ok, see ya."

Steve watched the younger man leave and then turned to Jim. "He's a teacher?"

"Teaching Assistant, actually. He's a grad student at Rainier University."

"How does a grad student get hooked up with a police detective?" Steve asked.

"Sandburg's working on his doctorate. He's studying closed societies and the police department is the subject of his dissertation. He just happened to be partner with me." Jim delivered the standard lie.

Steve seemed to buy that as he nodded his head.

Jim finished up with his hamburger. "Well, are you finished?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

They paid for their meal and then left the restaurant and started down the beach. They had parked about block down from the restaurant at Blair's suggestion so that they could take a walk down the beach. Jim had conceded because it gave the men more time to talk.

Steve glanced at his companion as they walked. "Let me ask you something, Jim. What would your father say if you told him you were going on a dangerous assignment in another city?"

Jim looked at him curiously, wondering where that came from. Then he sighed as his thoughts went to his father. He was still angry at him for what he had said. His father practically accused Blair of mooching off Jim, of just taking advantage of him. That had got Jim royally pissed, and he really didn't want to speak to the man for a while.

"To tell you the truth," Jim answered. "I'm not sure I'd even tell him right now."

Steve looked puzzled. "Why not?"

"I don't have the best relationship with my father. He wasn't there much when I was a kid. And some of the things he did and said… Anyway, when I was old enough, I joined the army, left home, and never came back. We haven't spoken to each other in 15 years. We just started speaking again a few months ago, but right now, I don't even want to look at him."

Steve looked appalled. He couldn't imagine not speaking to his father for 15 years. That was outrageous. He and his father were always together. They lived together. They worked together, and sometimes they even played together. They were more than father and son. They were best friends. What could Jim's father have done to warrant him leaving home and not coming back even for a visit?

"Why do you ask?" Jim asked.

"Huh? Oh. No reason," Steve replied distractedly.

Jim lips curved into a small smile. "Let me guess. Your dad didn't want you to come here."

Steve sighed and nodded. "I know he was just trying to protect me, and he had every right to be worried, but he tried to order me not to go like I was still a child. We got into this big argument and I left. I didn't even say good-bye."

"And you're feeling guilty," Jim said.

"Yeah. I know it sounds silly, but Dad and I, we don't fight much. And I hate it when we do."

"Well, I'm sure everything will be fine when you get back."

Both continued walking in companionable silence, neither one aware of the close scrutiny they were getting.

Ricki Boone watched the two men walk past and waited until they were out of earshot. He pulled out a walkie-talkie. Bringing it to his mouth, he depressed the button.

"Hey Dan."

"Yo," his brother responded from his position atop a sand dune a hundred yards from their position.

"Looks like we found another candidate."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Take them both."

"Roger that."

Dan hefted the rifle, cocked it, and took aim.

Jim's head immediately turned to the side as the ominous click sound of a gun being cocked reached his ears. He spun around, his eyesight stretching automatically to follow the sound. He spotted the guy on a sand dune holding a rifle aimed at them.

"Look out!" he yelled, pushing Steve to the ground. He didn't get out of the way fast enough, however, and as Jim felt the sting in his left arm, he dimly realized that he had not heard the crack of a gunshot like he had expected. It was more like a "pfft" sound. He looked at his arm and pulled the dart out. He looked at it, his vision beginning to blur. "Oh shit," he mumbled as he fell forward.

"Jim!" Steve yelled as he saw the other man fall.

He grabbed Jim's arms and pulled him behind a rock outcropping, dimly noticing the tranquilizer dart in the unconscious man's hand. Once they were safely behind the rocks, he checked Jim's pulse. Satisfied with the slow, steady beat, he pulled out his gun and peered around the rocks. He didn't see anyone, and he had no idea where that shot came from. Ducking back behind the rocks, he pulled out his cell phone, intending to call for backup, but before he could dial, he felt a crushing blow to his right temple. He landed next to Jim unconscious.

Ricki threw the crowbar to the ground and smiled satisfactorily. He pulled out the walkie-talkie.

"Dan. We got 'em."

"Good work, bro. Now it's time for the fun part."

Blair looked up at the clock as he stretched languorously. It was 2:00pm. The class had lasted an hour and afterwards, Blair decided to go back to his office to get a little grading done. He'd been at it for about an hour and a half. Maybe it was time to head back to the station. He started packing up his things when his phone rang. He snatched it up after the second ring.

"Blair Sandburg."

"Sandburg, do you know where your partner is?" Simon's voice boomed over the line.

"Uh, no, Simon," Blair answered puzzled. "Isn't he there?"

"Sandburg," Simon said in exasperation. "If he were here, would I be calling you?"

"No, I guess not. Well, the last time I saw him was at lunch. In fact, Jim said they were heading back to the station afterwards." Blair's heart went up into his throat, and he swallowed a few times to get the words out. "You don't think something happened, do you?"

There was a sigh over the phone line. "I don't know. I called him at the loft. I called his cell phone. He's not answering, and no one has seen him since you guys left this morning."

Blair's gut tightened in fear. It wasn't like Jim not to call, not let someone know where he was, especially if he was on duty. Blair had a bad feeling about this.

"Alright. I'm heading over to the loft, see if he's been there. I'll call you once I get there," Blair said, standing up and stuffing everything into his backpack. He hung up the phone without giving Simon time to respond, gathered his backpack and jacket, and left.

The drive to the loft, which usually took about a half hour, took Blair about ten minutes, propelled by his fear for his partner. He didn't see Jim's truck in the parking lot anywhere so he wasn't surprised when he walked into an empty loft. He looked around the loft carefully but found no trace that Jim had been there since this morning. He sighed and collapsed into a chair. Damn it, Jim. Where are you?

Blair nearly jumped out of his skin when a ringing suddenly emanated from his backpack. He quickly rummaged around in the leather pack until he found his cell phone.

"Hello? Jim?" Blair answered. There was no answer. "Jim, is this you?" Silence. He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the screen. Jim's cell phone number displayed on the screen. Putting the phone back to his ear, he said, "Jim, if you can hear me, answer me." There was still no answer, but as Blair listened closer, he thought he could hear breathing and then there was what sounded like grunting in the background.

His heart started pounding in fear as the silence continued. "Jim, c'mon, man. You're…

"…scaring me here. Jim?"

Dan smiled as he lowered the cell phone and gently placed it on the table. The voice on the other end could still be heard frantically calling to his missing partner. Dan looked at his brother and then at their four prisoners tied to chairs nearby. Three of them were still out from the tranquilizers they had given them, but one was awake and moving. He didn't know why he was awake. They had given him enough tranquilizers to knock him out for hours.

Jim struggled against his bonds, getting more and more agitated as he listened to Blair's fear-filled voice calling his name. Jim tried to answer him through the gag in his mouth, but all that came out were grunts.

"Why is he awake?" Ricki asked quietly as they both watched the man struggle.

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. We'll just give him more tranquilizers later."

They looked back down at the phone, the voice still audible.

"Think this will work?" Ricki asked.

"Yep. They'll come."

After his repeated attempts to get Jim to answer failed, Blair grabbed the loft phone and dialed Simon's number. It was answered after the third ring.

"Banks."

"Simon, it's Blair."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing here, but I just got a call on my cell phone just now. I think it's Jim, but he's not answering."

"How do you know it's Jim?"

"The phone says it's Jim's cell phone, but he's not saying anything." Blair was talking fast in his nervousness.

"Alright. Slow down. Do you hear anything on the phone?" Simon asked.

Blair took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Um, yeah. There was breathing and some grunts in the background. And I think I heard two voices talking to each other, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Simon, I think he's in trouble."

"Ok, keep the line open. I'm going to put a trace on your phone. Meanwhile, meet me at the station."

Blair nodded and hung up, remembering too late that Simon couldn't see him. He put the cell back to his ear.

"Jim, if you can hear me, hang in there. We're going to find you."

When Blair got to the station, he was entering the bullpen just as Simon was leaving his office, putting on his coat.

"Sandburg, we've got a lock on your mysterious phone call," Simon called.

"Then let's go," Blair said.

"Brown, Rafe, Megan, you're with me," Simon ordered.

"What's going on, Captain?" Brown asked.

"Jim may be in trouble."

That was all he needed to say. Immediately the detectives sprang to their feet, grabbing their coats and heading out of the bullpen.

The trace led them to a vacant house in upper Cascade. It didn't look like it had been vacant for long. The grass was still neatly cut. The house was in good condition, and there was uncollected mail in the mailbox. Simon pulled the car in the driveway while the police cruisers that had followed splayed along the street in front of the house. Simon looked at his silent passenger.

"Stay here until I give the all clear," he said. "Ah, no buts," he added when Blair opened his mouth to argue.

Blair slumped in the seat and nodded reluctantly. He watched as police officers converged on the house, some entering through the front and others going around to the back. Blair's fingers tapped his thigh anxiously. Finally, Simon came out and motioned for him to come inside. Blair quickly got out of the car and hurried inside.

"Well?" he asked.

"There's no one here," Simon answered grimly.

Blair's heart clenched as his hopes of finding his partner were shattered.

"But this is where the call came from, right?" Blair asked.

"Yeah. C'mon."

Simon grabbed his arm and gently led him into the other room. The room was empty except for a table. On the table sat two cell phones, one opened, two badges, and two guns. Simon picked up the open cell phone.

"This is Jim's cell phone."

Blair looked down at his own open cell phone. Finally, he flipped it closed and stuck it in his pocket. He moved closer to the table to get a closer look at the other objects on it.

"Along with Sloan's cell, and both their badges and guns," Simon explained.

Blair closed his eyes. "So they have Steve too."

"It would appear so."

"But why would they call me and then leave the line open?" Blair asked.

"It's obvious that they wanted us here, but the question is, why?"

Brown came down the stairs and approached the two men. "Captain, there's something upstairs you guys should see."

They followed up the stairs to what used to be a bedroom but now looked more like an observation room. A large hole had been cut into the wall and replaced with a plate glass window so that the room could be viewed from the hallway.

"Whoa. What's up that?" Blair asked.

"That's not all. Take a look at what's inside the room," Brown said, opening the door and entering the room beyond.

The room was fairly large, like a master bedroom, and it was empty except for a bank of monitors in the middle of the room. There were four blank monitors in a row situated in a module. Four small headsets lay in a neat row on the table in front of the monitors.

"What is all this?" Simon asked.

"From I can tell, Captain, it looks like monitoring equipment. What it's for is anybody's guess," Brown answered.

Blair stepped inside after Simon and looked around the room. His eyes roamed each nook and cranny until they fell on a camera on the wall in one corner of the room.

"Simon," Blair said. When he had the captain's attention, he pointed at the camera.

Simon looked at the device carefully. He noticed that the red light under the camera lens was off, indicating that the camera was off.

"It's not on," he reported.

"Why would there be cameras in a vacant house?" Blair asked.

"Well, obviously someone went to a lot of trouble to set all this up."

Blair took a step toward the monitors and suddenly, they sprang to life. Blair stepped back as a fuzzy picture appeared on the four monitors.

"What did I do?" he asked.

Simon looked around and noticed a metal circle imbedded in the wall on the left side of the room. "Motion sensor," he said, pointing. He looked back at the monitors. "These must be programmed to turn on when the motion sensors are tripped." He looked back up at the camera and saw the red light was on. "The camera too."

"This is pretty high-tech stuff, Captain. It can't be a coincidence that all this is here," Brown surmised.

"I agree. I want all this equipment analyzed as quickly as possible. Hopefully, we'll be able to find something."

Blair wasn't paying attention to the two men talking. He was focused on the monitor. His heart starting pounding as he moved closer to the monitors, which showed four people tied to chairs situated in a row from four different angles, and one of those people was Jim.

"Oh my god, Simon, it's Jim," Blair whispered.

Simon and Henri stopped in their conversation and focused on the monitors. Besides Jim, there was also Steve Sloan and two others, a male and a female. All seemed to be unconscious.

"Oh my god," Simon whispered. He turned to Henri. "Get tech support in here now. I want to know where that signal is coming from. Go!"

Brown nodded and ran out the room while Simon turned his gaze back to the monitors. He examined his detective closely, trying to determine the extent of his condition. He couldn't see visible wounds, but that didn't mean he wasn't injured at all. Sloan, however, had blood running down the right side of his face from a gash on his temple. The other two seemed unharmed.

"Simon, we gotta find out where that is," Blair said. There was desperation in the young man's voice.

Simon put his hand on Blair's shoulder. "We will."

They looked back at the monitors in time to see Jim start to awaken.

Jim slowly lifted his aching head as awareness slowly returned. He looked around with blurry eyes, trying to figure out where he was. He didn't recognize the place. He tried to get up and found that he couldn't. He looked down and saw that ropes completely encircled his chest, securing him to the back of a wooden chair. Ropes also tied his arms to the arms of the chair. Oh great, what now? he thought. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what had happened to land him in this predicament.

He remembered walking on the beach with Steve and hearing a gun being cocked in the distance. He remembered pushing Steve down and feeling the sting in his arm that was some kind of dart. He didn't know how long he'd been out before he awakened to find himself tied to a chair. Sloan and two other people he didn't know were next to him similarly tied. He especially remembered one of his captures calling Blair on his cell phone and the panic he felt when he realized their intent. Then there was the sting of a syringe in his neck and then oblivion once more.

He opened his eyes and looked around again. This definitely wasn't the house they had been in before. This looked more like some sort of warehouse. Their kidnappers must have moved them while he was unconscious, but the question was, where?

Jim looked down at the ropes again. He tested their strength and found them to be secure. There was no way he was going to get free, and unfortunately, he didn't have a knife handy. He looked to his right and saw Steve tied a chair next to him and the two other people just beyond him, all appeared to be unconscious. Jim extended his hearing to listen to their heartbeats and sighed when he heard the slow, steady beats. He stretched his hearing beyond the room he was in and found two heartbeats in the next room and a third somewhere outside the building. He brought his hearing back down to normal and looked at Steve again.

"Steve," he called. "Steve, wake up. Steve."

Steve's hand jerked and then he slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes. He groaned, his face scrunched in pain.

"Whoa, what hit me?" he asked.

"If I were to take a guess, I'd say it was one of our kidnappers," Jim replied, noticing the blood on the side of the other detective's face. "You ok?"

"My head's killing me, but other than that I'm fine." He just then noticed that he was tied up. He tried to pull free. "What the…? What's going on? Where are we?"

"You got me on the where, but I think we've been kidnapped," Jim replied.

Steve sighed, closing his eyes. "Great. Any idea who?"

"No."

Jim took a closer look at the room they were in. The room itself was very large with several pieces of machinery around. The first thing Jim noticed was the bank of monitors sitting right in front of them against the far wall. The four monitors were blank. There was also a camera on the wall near the ceiling pointed at them. Looking around, he noticed three other cameras aimed at them as well from different angles.

There were several objects about waist high covered with a dingy sheet against the left wall, and next to that was a metal tray table with several knives and assorted blades situated neatly in rows on top. Jim didn't want to think about what those were for.

Panicked breathing brought Jim's attention to the woman sitting next to Steve. She had just woken up and realized her situation and was starting to panic.

"What's going on? Who are you people? Why am I here?" She started pulling frantically at her arms, trying to get them free.

"Hey, calm down," Jim said in his gentlest tone. He needed to get her calmed down otherwise she was going to hurt herself if she kept pulling at the ropes like that. "Calm down. Hey, look at me. Look at me."

Jim's voice finally registered. She stopped struggling and looked at him.

"It's going to be ok," he reassured her.

"How do you know?"

"I don't, but you're just going to have to trust me. What's your name?"

"Britney…Mercer. Britney Mercer," she replied, her voice trembling.

"Britney, I'm Detective Jim Ellison, and this is Lt. Steve Sloan. We're with the police."

Britney seemed to calm down a bit at that. "You are?"

"Yes, and we're going to find a way out of here. You just have to hang in there. Can you do that?"

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "Yeah, I think so," she replied in a small voice.

"Oh no." A groan came from the fourth member of their group. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no."

"Hey, you alright down there?" Steve asked.

"No, no, no, no," he kept repeating, seeming not to hear Steve's question. He was rocking back and forth as much as the ropes would allow. "Now it's going to begin."

Steve and Jim exchanged glances. The guy seemed to be on the edge.

"What's going to begin?" Jim asked.

"The torture," he replied absently.

"Torture! What torture?!" Britney exclaimed, her panic rising again.

"It's what they do. They ask questions, and if the answer's wrong, they torture you." He looked at the three people sitting next to him. "But they don't ask you questions. They ask your father."

"You're Kane Stark, aren't you?" Steve asked. At the guy's nod, Steve closed his eyes and swore. "Oh shit."

"Kane Stark. Why do I know that name?" Jim asked.

"He was kidnapped recently in Los Angeles," Steve replied.

Jim nodded. Now he remembered. He and Blair had been watching the news every night for the past few months, trying to keep up-to-date on the kidnapping case that had so far left over twenty dead that they knew of. After finding out that there had been reports of similar incidents in New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Salt Lake City, and many more, Jim figured that if these guys ended up in Cascade, it would be best if they knew all they could about them. Now it would appear that they have come to Cascade, and he's going to be one of their first victims here.

"The Doom and Gloom Brothers," Jim said. "Looks like they're not in Los Angeles anymore."

"So it would appear."

"Oh shit," Jim echoed Steve's earlier sentiments.

The door opened then and two men entered. They were both dressed all in black, and the only difference between the two was that one was wearing a white plastic mask and the other was wearing a black plastic mask to match his clothing. The masks were the same in design, completely covering their whole head. The only thing the prisoners could see of their captors were their eyes and mouth. Both had the same emerald green eyes.

"Ah, good. You're awake," White Mask remarked. "Just in time for the show."

Black Mask moved to the bank of monitors in front of them without a word. He pressed a few buttons and the monitors flipped on, each depicting a different image. One showed a large room in what looked like a house, possibly a living area. A second showed the front porch. Another showed the backyard, and the fourth…the fourth is what caught Jim's attention. It showed a room with a window in the back wall overlooking a hallway. The top of a bank of monitors could be seen along the bottom of the screen, and right in the middle were Blair and Simon and other police officers behind them. Jim straightened up in his chair as he saw his partner's face on the screen.

White Mask turned and looked up at the camera located above the bank of monitors and started speaking.

Blair watched as the two men entered the room where his partner and the other prisoners were being kept. His heart constricted in fear. So these were the Doom and Gloom Brothers. He and Jim had been listening to the news about these two for months, and now to see it firsthand, it was scary. Jim had suspected that they would come to Cascade one day, but neither one of them expected that day to be today.

"Ah, I see you discovered my house of pain," the man in the white mask spoke directly to them. "Glad you could make it. I was hoping you would be smart enough to call the police and have them trace my call."

Blair and Simon looked at each other. They had already speculated that these guys wanted them at that house, but the question was why?

"There are no microphones in that room," the man continued, "so if you want to talk to me, I suggest you put those headsets on."

Both Blair and Simon reached for one of the four headsets on the table and put them on.

"Who are you?" Simon immediately asked.

White Mask laughed. "Do you really think I'm going to tell you that? I don't think so. But you might be able to guess. If you're smart enough. For now, you can call me Doom, and that's my brother Gloom."

"Doom and Gloom? My grandmother could come up with better aliases than that." Jim said sarcastically.

White Mask immediately spun around, stalked toward Jim, and grabbed him roughly by the neck. "I don't believe I was speaking to you!" he yelled.

"No! Don't!" Blair cried jumping to his feet.

White Mask pulled out a knife and held in front of Jim's face. "The next time you talk out of turn, I'll cut your eyes out. Do you understand?"

Jim looked him straight in the eyes with no hint of fear. "Tough talk…for a kid. And I would think you would cut my tongue out for talking out of turn."

Blair's mouth nearly dropped open. _What the hell is he doing? _He thought. _Is he trying to piss them off._

A full minute went by as everyone watched and waited to see what would happen next. Then, they saw Jim wince and move his head to the side as White Mask sliced the side of his face next to his right eye. It wasn't anything serious, but it made everyone in the room flinch right along with him.

"Ah, but if I cut out your tongue, you won't be able to play our little game. I may be young, but I'm not stupid. Play your cards right, you might live through this. Continue to sass me, and you'll die no matter what."

"Why are you doing this?" Blair asked as White Mask released Jim roughly and turned back toward the camera.

With a huge sigh, he replied, "Because some people aren't meant to be fathers."

Blair and Simon looked at each other, puzzled.

"Now, the only reason I'm allowing the police to be present right now is because I happen to have two police officers as my 'players.' However, I can't have too many of you in that house. You might try something. So I'm only going to allow members of Major Crimes to be present, and only four members please. The rest will have to leave, and if I see a uniformed cop or even another detective in or near that house, they will suffer." He gestured to the four people seated behind him. "So I must ask that anyone who is not a Major Crime detective to please leave the premises."

A full minute went by, and none of them moved. White Mask stared at them from the screen. He nodded.

"So, you want to try my patience. Fine." He motioned to someone off camera, and few minutes later, Black Mask came on dragging a metal tray over to the four prisoners. Black Mask then picked up a particularly nasty-looking blade with a serrated edge and held it to Jim's throat. White Mask looked back at the camera. "Let's see how much pain you can watch," he said.

"No! Simon!" Blair cried, looking pleadingly at the captain.

"No, wait!" Simon spoke up. He sighed. "Alright." He looked over his shoulder at the group of cops gathered in the doorway. "Everyone out. Now."

The officers looked at each other and then reluctantly filed out of the room. White Mask waited for a few minutes, looking at something that was off camera. Soon, only Simon, Blair, Brown, and Rafe remained.

"That includes the hippie," the man said.

"No way. I'm not going anywhere. Jim is my partner."

White Mask snorted. "You expect me to believe that you're a cop let alone a member of the Major Crime unit?"

"I'll vouch for him. I consider him apart of my department. He stays," Simon stated firmly, daring the man to argue.

Neither man moved. White Mask stood and stared at them, and Black Mask still held that knife to Jim's throat.

"You truly are a big man, threatening a bound man like this," Jim said calmly. "You think you're some kind of saviors, don't you."

"As a matter of fact, we do," Black Mask whispered in Jim's ear. He removed the knife from Jim's throat while the other came over and hit Jim across the face.

Jim lifted his head up and looked at his captor. "You're doing all this to punish fathers. What was your own father like, I wonder."

Jim, what are you doing, Blair thought as he watched the scene helplessly.

White Mask spun around to face the detective. At first, Blair thought he was going to hit Jim again, but then he just laughed.

"You're trying to get me angry so that I'll say something that I shouldn't. Well, I'm going to tell everyone this. My parents are dead, and my father was an asshole. Now," he hit Jim harder this time, "I'm going to reiterate this for you just one more time and this goes for all four of you. You don't speak until spoken to."

Jim spit out a mouthful of blood and looked calmly up at the man, but he kept quiet this time. White Mask then turned back to the camera.

"All right. The kid can stay. Now I have a few rules for you. Rule number 1, as of right now, you are all stuck in this house. You are not to set foot outside of this house. The bathrooms are in working order and there's plenty of food stocked in the kitchen so there is absolutely no reason for you to leave. I have cameras posted outside and inside so I'll know if you do. Rule number 2, you are not to tamper with any of the cameras in any way. We'll be constantly monitoring them so try to stay away from them. Rule number 3, no cell phones. I want all of you to take your cell phones out of your pockets and place them in the box on the floor next to the table."

Slowly, the four men took out their cell phones, and they each placed them in the small cardboard box sitting next to the bank of monitors.

"Very good. Now, I want the hippie to take the box and place it on the back porch in full view of the camera. Do that now."

Blair hesitated, glancing at Simon briefly. He then picked up the box and started for the door, a little annoyed at being called hippie yet again. Why does everyone have to call him hippie? He may have the hairstyle, but he was far from a hippie.

Without thinking, Blair muttered indignantly, "My name is Sandburg."

"Mr. Sandburg."

Blair stopped in the doorway. He closed his eyes, belatedly realizing that he was still wearing the headset. He turned around.

"Take that tone of voice with me again, and you're partner here suffers. You got that?"

Blair nodded slightly before leaving the room. He tried to swallow past the lump that had formed in his throat as he hurried down the stairs and toward the back door. These guys were certifiably nuts, and the last thing Blair wanted to do was provoke them into hurting Jim or one of the others. He was going to have to learn to keep his mouth shut because talking wasn't going to get them out of this, and it may just make matters worse.

Blair opened the back door and placed the box on the floor in front of the porch, making sure that it was in view of camera located above the door. He then went back inside and hurried back up the stairs. When he got back to the room, the man on the screen spoke again.

"Good. And rule number 4, you will not interfere with the proceedings. You will stay out of this room during sessions."

"What sessions?" Simon asked.

"You'll see. Oh, and failure to follow these rules," White Mask moved back over to Jim and replaced the knife to Jim's throat. Jim had his stoic mask in place, trying not to show any weakness. "Detective Ellison, here, becomes a roadmap of pain. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes," Simon answered grimly.

"Good." He removed the knife again and stepped in front of Jim. "Now I want you to do something for me. These four individuals will be participating in a little game of ours. Detective Ellison and Lt. Sloan, you already know. This young lady," he pointed at the young girl sitting next to Steve who looked scared out of her mind, "is Britney Mercer and that's Kane Stark." He pointed to the fourth prisoner sitting next to Britney. "I want you to bring their fathers to that house and only their fathers. Bring them to that room. I will allow one of you and only one to go outside and use a cell phone. You have 24 hours. I'll be in touch."

The monitors switched off. Blair took in a shaky breath. He took off the earpiece and set it on the table. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and he looked up into Simon's concerned face.

"Are you alright?" the captain asked.

Blair snorted. "No, Simon, I am so far from alright. Do you have any idea what these guys do?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what they do," Simon replied. He sighed and glanced back at Brown and Rafe. Both looked worried. Placing his own headset back on the table, he said, "Stay here. I'll go make the calls."

Blair didn't even acknowledge Simon's departure as he leaned his hands on the table, his head hanging forward. He couldn't get the image of Jim tied to a chair at the complete mercy of those two sadistic men as they beat him. He felt sick to his stomach.

Henri put a hand on Blair's shoulder in a comforting manner. "It's going to be ok, Hairboy."

Blair lifted his head. "I'm scared for him, H."

"We all are," Rafe said, placing a hand on Blair's other shoulder. "But Jim's tough. He'll make it through this, and so will we."

I hope you're right, Blair thought because he had a feeling that the worst was yet to come.

Black Mask pressed a button on a remote control that shut off the cameras in the room. The two captors then moved to the other end of the large room where they thought they couldn't be heard. Little did they know that they had a Sentinel in their midst. Jim automatically dialed up his hearing to listen in to the conversation.

"That guy's going to be trouble," Black Mask said, looking at Jim.

"He's a cop. What did you expect? That just makes it more of a challenge," White Mask stated. He looked at the other man. "You're not chickening out on me, are you, Ricki?"

Black Mask, Ricki, shook his head. "No, I'm not chickening out on you, Dan. It's that I don't want this operation to fall apart on us."

"Don't worry, bro. There's no way they could possibly find us. We were careful."

Ricki nodded.

Dan moved to the open door and stuck his head out, looking up and down the hall. He moved to where Ricki was standing. "Where's Maxi?"

"I don't know. She's around here somewhere."

Dan sighed. "I don't like not knowing where she is, not after what she tried to do the last time."

"Relax, man. She wouldn't fink on us."

"Not for a lack of trying."

"We talked to her. She understands now."

"All right, all right. Go watch the monitors. I'll take our 'guests' to their 'accommodations.'"

Jim watched as Ricki left the room. They must have more monitors in some other part of the warehouse. He wondered just how many cameras they had in that house. He turned his attention to Dan as he came over to the prisoners. One by one, he untied them and led them at gunpoint to another room across the warehouse. He threw each of them into the room and then shut and locked the door.

The room was dark, and Jim dialed up his sight in order to the see the room better. It was small compared to the large expanse they had just been in. There was only one door that Jim could see and one window, which was boarded up and only allowed minimum sunlight in. Looks like there's no escaping through there, Jim thought. It was too high for any of them to reach anyway. Although, those crates Jim noticed in the corner of the room could be stacked on top of each other underneath the window. They could reach that window if they had to, but those boards would be a problem.

Steve sighed as he looked around the room even though he couldn't see much. He turned to Jim. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to find a way out of here," Jim replied.

"That's going to be a little difficult since we can't see much except for that window."

Jim rubbed his forehead in thought. "Alright. There are some crates over in that corner. Stack them under that window and see if you can get those boards off. I'm going to see how secure that door is."

Steve looked to where Jim pointed, but all he saw were shadows. "What crates?"

"Trust me. They're there. Go."

Steve just shrugged and took his word for it. Jim went over to the door and began to examine it closely. First, he tried to the knob, but of course, it was locked. No surprise there. He tried yanking on it hard. This warehouse was pretty old. Jim could tell by the looks of the place. These doors couldn't be very sturdy. But as he ran sensitive fingers over the portal, he realized that the door was brand new. There was no way he could just pull it open. He took closer look at the lock. It was brand new as well, but it was nothing fancy. He could probably pick it if he had something to pick it with. He looked around on the floor for something, anything to use as a lock-pick, but there was nothing. He sighed in defeat and looked to where Steve was standing on a stack of crates and pulling futilely at the boards.

"Any luck?" Jim asked.

Steve sighed and hopped down from the crates. "No. They aren't coming off."

"Damn it."

"I take it you didn't have any luck with the door."

"No."

A quiet sob brought their attention to the two other people in the room. Britney sat against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her head rested on her knees. Her shoulders shook with the force of her quiet sobs. Kane sat next to her, trying to comfort her.

Jim sighed. "We have to get them out of here."

"Yeah, I agree."

Los Angeles

Dr. Mark Sloan sat down at one of the tables in the doctor's lounge with a soft sigh, coffee cup in hand. He was exhausted. This was the first time he had been able to sit down for the last twelve hours. This was also the first time he was able to think about the argument he'd had with Steve the day before.

He still didn't know what had come over him. He didn't usually forbid Steve from doing anything, especially something job-related. He knew how important Steve's job was to the younger man. He would never get in the way of that. He didn't like that Steve was a cop. It scared him sometimes at the danger his son has to put himself in in order to get the job done, but he had never stopped him from doing those things.

Mark took a sip from his coffee mug as he thought about what he had been thinking when Steve told him about the undercover assignment. All he could think about at that time was the poor soul who had gone undercover in the Murder For Hire operation and turned up dead. He remembered when Steve told him about it, and he remembered thinking, God, what if that had been Steve? And then his son was telling him that he was going undercover with those same men, and it brought to life the very real fear that it still could end up being his son who gets killed. He just lost it.

Steve had left that morning. He didn't even say good-bye, and that made Mark feel even worse. If something really did happen to Steve, he didn't want the last words he said to him to be spoken in anger. He wanted to call his son and apologize, but he knew that he couldn't without blowing his cover. He would just have to wait until Steve came home.

Mark was brought out his thoughts when Dr. Jesse Travis entered the lounge.

"Hey Mark. How are you doing," the young doctor asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Tired. I'm just enjoying the free time while I have it before it gets busy again."

"Oh I know," Jesse said. He came with his coffee and sat down next to the older doctor. "Can you believe three disasters in one day? God must be vengeful today or something." He looked closely at his mentor and frowned. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Mark replied, rubbing his face with one hand. "I'm just worried about Steve."

"Ah." Jesse nodded in understanding. "I'm sure he's ok, Mark."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I just can't help worrying."

Mark's cell phone rang then. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered, "Hello?"

"Yes, is this Mark Sloan?"

"Yes it is. Who's this?"

"I'm Captain Simon Banks with the Cascade, Washington Police Department. I'm calling about your son."

Mark's face turned white. "Oh my god. Is he ok?"

Jesse immediately put his coffee cup down at Mark's tone and listened intently to the conversation.

There was a hesitation over the phone line. "You're son's been kidnapped, Mr. Sloan."

Mark's heart plummeted to his feet. "What? By who? Does this have something to do with the undercover assignment?"

"Actually, this has nothing to do with the undercover assignment. Two guys calling themselves The Doom and Gloom Brothers is responsible. I'm assuming you've heard of them."

Mark swallowed hard. Of course he'd heard of them. How could he not? They were all over the news, and they had been the subject of many conversations between Jesse, Amanda, Steve, and himself. How could this happen?

Mark licked suddenly dry lips before answering. "How many do they have?" If they still had Kane Stark, then that meant they had two including Steve. They would need two more before they started anything. That should give them enough time to find them.

There was a sigh and then came the answer that turned Mark's blood to ice. "Four. Your son, one of my detectives, and two other people. Your presence has been requested."

Of course, the next step was to get the fathers of the victims together, and then everything can start.

Mark closed his eyes and asked, "Where?" He quickly jotted down the address given and then hung up.

"What's wrong? Mark?" Jesse asked, worried.

"The Doom and Gloom Brothers," was all the older man said.

"Huh?"

"The Doom and Gloom Brothers. They've moved to Cascade. They have Steve."

Jesse's face paled. "Oh God."

"I have to go to Cascade right away." Mark pushed himself to his feet.

Jesse stood with him and placed a hand on the older man's shoulder. "Listen, why don't you go home and pack a bag. I'll get you a flight to Cascade."

Mark gave him the barest of smiles. "Thanks Jesse. And tell Amanda…"

"I'll let her know what's going on. You just get to Steve."

Cascade

Simon closed the cell phone with a snap and sighed. That had been the hardest call he'd ever had to make. At least he hadn't had to break the news to Britney Mercer's and Kane Stark's fathers. He had called Joel at the station and, after filling him on what was happening, asked him to track down their parents and have their fathers come to the house alone. Then he had called William Ellison, which had been just as hard, before calling Mark Sloan.

He looked down at the phone in his hand and got an idea. Making a point to keep his back to the camera over the back door, he walked to the box where all the other cell phones were and knelt next to it. He pretended to put the phone back in the box while secretly stashing it away in his coat pocket. He then stood up and casually waked back into the house like he had nothing to hide.

William Ellison got out of his car and looked up at the house. It looked like just a normal house, and yet he dreaded what he'd find inside. What sort of things he'd see and hear. No, this couldn't be the house. It looked too normal, too run-of-the-mill, but this was the address Captain Banks had given him over the phone.

He would never forget that phone call. He had been in his study like every other day before this one. When he answered the phone, it was like any other day, until he heard the deep voice of his son's boss, Captain Simon Banks. He vaguely remembered meeting briefly with the man after Jimmy had apprehended Aaron Foster, the man who had kidnapped him just to lure Jimmy out to that football field. He knew that the only reason Captain Banks would be calling him was that Jimmy had been hurt or…killed. When the captain told him that Jimmy had been kidnapped and to meet him at this address he had not only been scared but also puzzled. He had guessed that this might have something to do with his son's work as a police officer, but why did Banks tell him to meet him at this house.

Well, he wasn't going to get any answers standing out here. He took a deep breath and walked up the front walk to the door. He knocked and waited for a few minutes before the door was opened. He paused as he saw the long-haired young man framed in the doorway. Blair Sandburg, he remembered. Seeing him reminded him of the last thing he had said to his son, the last time they had spoken. He had asked his son why he had let that hippie take advantage of him for so long. He didn't even know why he said it. Old habits die hard. It just slipped out, and once it was out, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. He could still see Jimmy's face as his expression hardened and his eyes became like chips of ice. He blew up and started yelling, and William had yelled back in defense. Then Jimmy had stormed out, and they hadn't seen or spoken to each other since.

"Mr. Ellison," the young man's voice brought William out of his thoughts, and he focused his attention to the present situation. "Come in." Blair stepped aside to let William inside.

William looked around and noticed four other people in the room off to his left. The tall, black man he recognized as Captain Banks. He didn't know the other people.

Banks approached William and shook his hand. "Mr. Ellison, thank you for coming. These are two of my detectives, Brian Rafe and Henri Brown." He indicated the two men standing next to him. "And this is Anthony Mercer." He pointed to the balding, grey-haired man standing off to the side. He looked just as scared as William felt. "His daughter has been kidnapped by the same people who took Jim."

William looked at the captain. "They kidnapped more than one person?"

"Yes. They have four. We're waiting for the other two fathers to show up, and then everything will be explained."

He sure hoped so.

It was a few hours before the others arrived. The first through the door was introduced as Matt Stark. He was a heavy-set man with a round face and salt and pepper hair. A few minutes later, a white-haired man introduced as Dr. Mark Sloan arrived. Apparently, both their sons were kidnapped as well. William didn't really pay much attention to these others. He had a one-track mind right now, and all he could think about was his son. He focused intently on Captain Banks as he stood in front of the four of them.

"Ok, I'm sure some of you know this already, but for the benefit of the ones who don't, I'm going to start from the beginning. As near as we can figure, this all started a few months ago. Now this might have started earlier than that. We don't know, but that's as far back as we've been able to track this thing so far."

"Excuse me for interrupting, but what are you talking about?" Anthony Mercer asked.

Simon took a deep breath. "The short version is, two men who have yet to be identified have kidnapping people all across the country and torturing them in order to punish bad fathers."

There was a weighted silence in the room for a while before it was broken. "The Doom and Gloom Brothers," Matt Stark whispered.

Simon glanced at him and replied, "Yes."

William swallowed hard as he tried to calm himself. Jimmy had told him about The Doom and Gloom Brothers before they had their fight. He remembered how angry his son had been while he talked about it, angry and something else. Fear. There had been a hint of fear in the ice blue eyes. William put his face in his hands as he realized that Jimmy knew that there was a possibility they would come to Cascade and that they would be perfect targets. Oh God, how were they going to get through this?

"What's The Doom and Gloom Brothers?" Mercer asked.

"Where have you been? Hiding under a rock?" Stark nearly snapped. "They're only the biggest mass murderers in the country right now. They kidnap people and they ask their fathers questions, and if they get them wrong…well, they do horrible things."

Mercer looked at Banks. "And you think these are the people who took my daughter?"

"Yes, we do."

"So what are you doing about it?"

"Believe me, we're doing everything that we can. But right now, I need you all to follow me."

Banks led them upstairs to a room with a bank of monitors in the middle. He stopped at the door and indicated that they should enter first. William wasn't sure what was going on, but entered with the rest of them. Once they got close to the monitors, they suddenly turned on to show an empty room. Then a man wearing a white plastic mask stepped into the shot. He looked at the camera and smiled.

"Ah, so glad you could make it," the man spoke. "On the table in front of you are four headsets. Put them on."

Three of the four worried fathers looked at each other uncertainly and then reached forward hesitantly to take the headsets. The only one who didn't hesitant was Mark Sloan. He had been through many situations like this one. He knew it was better to do what was told and wait for the right moment.

"Good. You will wear these headsets any time you're in this room, and you will take them off before you leave."

"Where's my daughter?" Anthony Mercer said impatiently.

"All in good time, Mr. Mercer. All in good time. First off, I need go through a few rules. First, anyone who has a cell phone please take them out and place them on the table in front of you."

They each pulled out a cell phone and reluctantly put them on the table. Once that was done, the man spoke again.

"Good. Hippie, oh, I mean Mr. Sandburg," the man spoke in a condescending tone. "Please take the phones out to the back porch and put them in the box."

Blair moved forward, clearly irritated. As he was gathering the phones, William heard him mutter, "When did I become his personal errand boy?"

It wasn't until after Blair returned from his task that the man continued. "Now you're all going to be permanent guests in this house for a few days. We're going to play a little game and here are the parameters."

He swung a chair around and sat down backwards on it, leaning his arms on the back. There were machines around him that William hadn't noticed before.

"I'm going to ask each of you three rounds of questions, five questions each. You are aloud two wrong answers each round, but for each question you get wrong," he placed his hand on the machine to his left. "I'm going to give your son or daughter an electric shock. And if you get a third question wrong, I kill them."

William felt sick to his stomach. Oh God, he could end up losing his eldest son before they had a chance to make up.

"What sorts of questions?" Dr. Sloan asked.

"Simple questions. Ones that any good father should know. Questions about your child, about their past, about their present, and about their future. Answer these simple questions correctly and everything will be fine. You'll get your son or daughter back safe and sound. Don't, and you'll lose him or her forever."

"Why are doing this?!" Matt Stark yelled angrily.

The man's voice became cold. "Because, Mr. Stark, some people shouldn't be fathers. If you don't know your child well enough to answer these simple questions, then you don't deserve to have him or her. Now," he stood up and turned the chair back around. "Let the games begin. Only one of you will be allowed in this room during each session. First up, Ellison. The rest of you, leave the room."

William closed his eyes and tried to stay calm. He had to do this. For his son, he had to do this. He felt a touch on his shoulder and looked up into the kind, gentle eyes of Dr. Mark Sloan. The hand squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. William gave the doctor a small smile of gratitude. Then the others left the room and he was alone. He knew they were just outside watching through the window, but for all intents and purposes, he was very much alone.

The man on the screen looked to someone off screen and said, "Bring him in."

Jim paced the small room for the hundredth time. There was absolutely no way out of this room. They had tried the window many times, but the boards wouldn't budge and the lock on the door was solid. Even his senses couldn't find any way out. He sighed and slumped against the wall next to Steve.

"Oh God. We're going to die," Britney moaned. She hadn't stopped crying since they were thrown in here.

Kane wrapped his arm more tightly around her shoulders. "No, we're not. We've got something the other victims didn't have."

Britney looked at him, wiping tears from his face. "Yeah? What's that?"

"Two police officers. I'm sure they can find a way out of here. Right?"

They both looked at Jim and Steve hopefully. The two detectives looked at each other.

"Well, we're certainly going to try," Steve answered honestly.

Yeah, but no pressure though, Jim thought sarcastically. Jim rubbed his forehead. He had had his eyesight turned up since they were locked in this room in order to see through the dark, and it was starting to give him a headache. He turned down his eyesight. He didn't need it anymore. He had already memorized the room.

Jim's head tilted to the side as he his ears picked up footsteps coming towards their location. Steve noticed Jim's attention was elsewhere.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Someone's coming," Jim replied.

Steve listened but didn't hear anything. "How do you know?"

Before Jim could answer, the door was opened and the one known as Ricki walked in wearing that black plastic mask. Both Jim and Steve pushed away from the wall, quickly on the defensive.

"Ellison, let's go," Ricki said, aiming a gun at him.

"Wait. Where are you taking him?" Steve asked.

Ricki leveled the gun on Steve. "None of your business. You'll know soon enough." He turned back to Jim. "Let's go."

Jim exited the room, closely followed by Ricki. He was taken back to the room they had been in first. The room looked the same except there was only one chair this time sitting in between two machines. He couldn't quite tell what one of them was, but the other looked like a lie detector. He was strapped to the chair quickly and efficiently so that he was facing the monitors again, and Ricki started strapping both the lie detector and the other machine to his body. Now that he was closer, he saw that the second machine was some sort of electro shock machine. Oh no, he thought. They were going to electrocute him. He quickly turned down all the dials.

Jim looked at his other captor, Dan. "So what's going to happen now?"

"There's someone here who's very anxious to see you," Dan replied, ignoring Jim's question.

He moved aside and Jim could see his father on one of the monitors. He was alone in the room, but Jim could see everyone else out in the hall watching through the window.

"Dad?"

"Jimmy, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"All right," Ricki said, stepping forward. "Let's get started."

Dan turned to Jim and explained, "Now I'm going to ask your father questions about you and you're going to answer as honestly as you can. And don't even think about lying because we'll know it." He indicated the lie detector with a wave of his hand.

Jim took a deep breath. Questions about him, something that his father wasn't going to know much about, so he knew he was going to be in a whole world of hurt. Hopefully, his father knew enough to where he won't be killed.

Jim looked at the monitor again and spotted his partner behind the glass chewing nervously on a thumbnail. He hated that he was causing him so much worry. If only he could get a message to him somehow without alerting the two in the room with him. Wait a minute, he thought. Maybe there was a way. He didn't have much information about the men holding him, but he could at least give them what he did have. Hopefully, Blair will be paying enough attention to notice.

Jim glanced at the two men, and after making sure, they weren't looking at him, he started tapping the arm of the chair, forming letters and words with his fingers in Morse code. Hopefully, his partner learned enough that he'll be able to decipher what he's trying to say.

Blair chewed on his thumbnail as he watched and listened to what was going on in the room beyond. Oh God, he was scared. Why did Jim have to be first? He couldn't believe it. If Mr. Ellison got just three little questions wrong, he'd lose the best friend he'd ever had. He didn't now if he could handle that.

He felt Simon nudge him and he took his thumbnail out of his mouth and looked at him questioningly. Simon indicated his thumb with his head. Blair looked down and realized that he'd chewed the nail down to a nub and was close to chewing on his own thumb. He gave Simon a grim smile and lowered his hand to his side before turning back to the room.

"Now, first question," White Mask said. "What sport did Jim play when he was younger?"

Oh, you should know this, Blair thought. You should definitely know this.

"Football," William answered without hesitation.

White Mask looked to Jim, who answered in the affirmative. He turned back to the camera. "Very good. Second question, who was Jim's first girlfriend?"

Uh oh. Blair had a sinking feeling that William Ellison never took that much of an interest in his son's love life to ask who he was currently dating. Blair rubbed his hands together nervously.

William swallowed hard as he tried to think. He didn't remember his son ever dating when he was younger. But was that because Jim didn't date or because he didn't pay enough attention to notice that he was dating? If Jim did date, he never brought any of his girlfriends home, and William never asked. Oh God. He realized that he should know this. He sighed.

"I don't know," he answered softly.

"Too bad," White Mask said. He signaled to his companion who switched on the electro shock machine.

Jim jerked as the electricity flowed through his body. He only felt a mild burning sensation because he had the pain dial turned down to zero, but it was hard keeping it down. It kept wanting to climb up on its own along with all his other senses. He closed his eyes tightly as he struggled to maintain control over his senses and his body. He was proud of himself for not uttering a sound.

When it was over, it left him panting and weak. It was a few minutes before he could move. His muscles seemed paralyzed. When he finally regained control of his limbs, he continued his tapping, hoping Blair was getting the message.

"Well," White Mask said, "This one's tough. But how long can he last?"

That was a good question. The dials continued to try to climb despite Jim's best efforts to keep them down. He didn't know how many times he could endure this treatment before he lost control completely.

"Jimmy! Are you all right?" William cried frantically.

Jim looked up at the monitor, still breathing heavily. "Yeah…Dad…I'm…ok."

"Next question," White Mask went on.

"Please stop this," William begged.

"I will when you answer the questions. Three more."

Blair gripped the window sill tightly with both hands. It was hard seeing Jim suffer like that. He knew Jim would be having trouble with his senses. The electricity would make it hard for him to keep control. Blair feared that before all this was over, it will be worse for Jim than for any of the others.

Blair didn't even pay attention to the words being said. He kept his eyes on Jim. He wasn't even aware that another question had been asked until he heard Jim answer yes and realized that William had gotten another question right. Blair was relieved inside, but his brain was analyzing Jim closely. It took him a while to realize that Jim was still tapping the arm of the chair. Why was he doing that, he thought. Then he recognized the pattern. He quickly took out a pen and notepad and started writing.

Blair wrote down each letter, hoping that he was getting it right. Blair's head snapped up from his notepad when he heard a cry of pain. His face paled. They were doing it again. They were electrocuting him. Blair closed his eyes, unable to see such pain and suffering on his friend's face. It seemed to go on longer than the first time.

Finally, William couldn't stand it anymore. He shot to his feet. "Stop! Please!" he yelled in an anguished cry.

The electricity stopped and Jim was left slumped in the chair with his head hanging down on his chest. His muscles twitched spasmodically. He tried to lift his hand and continue his tapping, but he didn't have the strength.

"Final question," Dan said. "And remember, you have to get this one right or little Jimmy here dies."

Everyone waited with baited breath for the question to be asked, the question that would determine the fate of one man. There was so much tension in the air it could be cut with a knife.

"Who was his best friend?"

Jim closed his eyes in resignation. He hadn't many friends back then. Not many people wanted to be friends with a rich boy. And those he did have, he never really considered his best friends. That was why he never really kept in touch with anyone from back then. Truth be told, he never really had a best friend until he met Blair. But his father wasn't going to know that. Looked like this was it.

William sat back in his seat. The first thing that came to mind was, oh god, I've killed my son because I never took an interest in his life. Then he remembered what Jim had told him during the argument they had had the last time they talked.

*You don't now the first thing about Blair! He's the kindest, gentlest, most honest man I've met. He doesn't care about money. He doesn't even ask to borrow money. He doesn't even let me buy anything that he needs even though he doesn't have the money for it. And you know what. He's there in the loft and in my life because I want him there! He's the best friend I've ever had! And if you can't handle that…then maybe this whole reconciliation thing was just a huge mistake.*

William glanced back at the young man standing behind the window. He looked frightened, absolutely terrified. Maybe he really did care about his son.

"I'm waiting for your answer, Mr. Ellison," White Mask said impatiently.

William turned back around and took a deep breath. He hoped he was right about this. "He didn't have one back then, not until he met young Mr. Sandburg."

Jim's head snapped up. At first, he was stunned, and then a smile slowly formed on his face as he answered emphatically, "Yes! That's right!" His smile grew. His father had listened to him. For once in his life, he had listened to him. Jim would have felt completely elated if not for his current situation. He looked his father in the eyes and saw the apology there. He nodded to indicate that he got the message.

"How touching," White Mask said. "Congratulations Mr. Ellison. You passed the first round." He turned to his partner. "Take him back to the room and bring me Stark." He turned back to the camera. "You can leave the room now, Mr. Ellison. Mr. Stark, you're next."

William slowly got to his feet and took the headset off. Dropping the device on the table, he left the room, passing a grim-looking Matt Stark on the way out. He passed the people in the crowded hallway to look for a quiet place, someplace where he could be alone.

Blair watched the older man walk away, looking much older than the last time he had seen him. He wanted to go see if the older man was all right, but he had information, information Jim thought was important, and Simon had to know. He turned to the captain and leaned in close.

"Simon, we need to talk. Alone." Blair walked down the hall toward the stairs with a puzzled Simon following him.

Mark detached himself from the crowd and followed the two downstairs. He had overheard the young man and was curious. He wasn't too keen on watching something like that again anyway.

Steve paced the small room impatiently. What were they doing to him? What was taking so long? God, he hoped they didn't kill him. Steve shook those thoughts away. They would have no reason to kill him just yet, would they? Steve was brought of his thoughts when the door opened and the man in the black mask entered and threw a weakened Jim to the floor.

"Jim!" Steve cried in alarm, moving to the other man's side.

"Mr. Stark, come with me please," the man said.

Kane Stark swallowed hard and glanced at Steve. Then his gaze went to Jim who hadn't yet moved.

"Now."

Kane sighed and followed the man out the room. The door was shut and locked behind them. Once they were gone, Britney approached the two men on the floor.

"Is he…is he dead?" she asked timidly.

"No, he's still alive," Steve replied grimly. He looked down at the widely open eyes staring at the ceiling. If not for the muscle spasms and the heavy breathing, Steve would have thought the other detective really was dead. "Jim? Jim, can you hear me? Jim!" He sighed and sat back when he got no response.

He began to check Jim over for any injuries but could find none, and yet the man was unresponsive. God, what did they do to him?

Jim was lost in a maelstrom of pain, just this burning pain that seemed to encompass his very being. He thought he heard voices through the hazy void, but it wasn't the one voice he wanted to hear, the one voice that could stop all the insufferable pain. But the voices were familiar, and anything was better than this black oblivion filled with pain and agony. He slowly concentrated on those voices, trying to push himself back to reality.

"Jim," Steve said again.

"Is he ok?" Britney asked.

"I don't know. Jim, blink if you can hear me."

Blink? Jim thought hazily. The room came into focus along with two worried faces hovering above him. Why did they want him to blink? He wondered. Well, he could do that at least. He slowly blinked his eyes.

Steve smiled. "That's good. Can you speak?"

He opened his mouth but all that came out was a croak. He licked his lips, cleared his throat, and tried again.

"Y-yeah. Oh god," he groaned. The fiery pain was back.

Steve let a sigh of relief. "What happened?"

"Th-they used…electro-shock."

Britney gasped. "They electrocuted you?" she cried in horror.

Steve took a deep breath. "Well that explains the muscle spasms and the fact that you can't move. It should wear off soon though."

"Yeah, right," Jim said in a stronger voice as he lifted his hand up and turned it so the palm was facing upwards. Of course, he wasn't going to explain that the reason he couldn't move before was because he was zoned out.

"Can you sit up?"

"Yeah, I-I think so."

Steve and Britney helped Jim sit up and lean against the wall. Jim closed his eyes and mentally tried to turn down the dials again. He had more control than he did before, but not by much. This was going to wear him down fast.

Finally, he opened his eyes and said, "We've got to find a way out of here before one of us ends up dead."

"I agree with you there, but what else can we do? We've already searched this entire room. There's no way out," Steve said.

Jim sighed and closed his eyes again. Suddenly, his hearing spiked and a scream filled his ears. His eyes snapped open and he looked at Steve and Britney. Neither one seemed to have heard it, which meant it had to have been Stark. Jim rubbed his forehead and he tried to turn the dial on his hearing back down.

Steve noticed the motion. "Are you ok?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah. Headache, that's all."

Jim closed his eyes and tried to think. They had to find a way out of here. He just needed time to think. Of course, it was hard to think when he could hear screaming coming from down the hall. His hearing just would not stay down. Soon, they would be done with Stark though and then they'd come for Britney and Steve. And then they'd be left alone until the next session, whenever that will be. Then he could try to think of a way of getting all of them out of there.

It was only a short time later that Ricki returned with a limp Stark. After depositing him on the ground, he then dragged Britney out. Steve went to check on Stark and found him to be alive and in the same shape as Jim.

Steve looked at Jim. "Looks like they'll be coming for me next."

Jim sighed as he looked at the man lying on the floor. "You know if we wait much longer, none of us is going to be in any shape to get out of here."

God, he hoped Blair got his message. Maybe they could figure out who these guys are.

Blair led Simon to the front room and then took out the notepad.

"All right, Sandburg. What's this all about?" Simon asked.

"This." He handed the pad to the captain.

Simon took the pad. "'Dan.' 'Ricki.' 'Maxi,'" he read off. "So? Who are these people?"

"Well, I'm guessing that Dan and Ricki are the two guys on camera. I don't know who Maxi is though."

"Whoa, wait. What makes you think that? Where did you get these names anyway?"

"From Jim. He gave them to me. He must have heard them talking and managed to find out their names."

Simon pinched the bridge of his nose. "And when did he tell you this. How did he tell you this?"

"Look, Simon, Jim had been tapping the arm of his chair the entire time he was on camera. It was Morse code. He was sending me a message, that message." He tapped the pad in Simon's hand. "Now I think I got it all, but I'm not so sure because it took me a while to notice."

"How would he know you knew Morse code?" Mark asked as he entered the room.

Blair looked at him curiously but accepted his presence without question. "Jim's been teaching me Morse code for a few months now. We thought it would be handy to know in case there was ever a time where we couldn't talk to each other."

"I'd say this qualifies," Mark said, walking over to Simon and looking at what was written on the paper.

"But still, I don't see how three names are going to help us. We can't do a search on them without last names or a description," Simon said.

"So what do we know about them?" Mark asked.

"Well, we know they've been at this a while, that they've been all across the country," Simon said.

"We also know that they torture people in order to punish bad fathers. Also, by the looks of things, they have got to be in some sort of warehouse," Blair said.

"Yeah, but that doesn't help us. There are plenty of warehouses in this city to choose from, Sandburg," Simon pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right."

"Well, they've got to be young, maybe late twenties or early thirties," Mark added.

"How do you know that?" Blair asked.

"Just going by their build and the sound of their voices." Mark looked thoughtful. "What about this house? We know anything about it?"

"Nothing," Simon replied, puzzled as to where the doctor was going with this.

"So why pick this house?" Mark asked.

Blair shrugged. "One house is just as good as another?" he guessed. "I mean it's been vacant for a while. It's in a neighborhood where not a lot of people go by."

"Yeah, but when I went down this block I noticed there were plenty of vacant houses. The street is full of them. So why pick this one?"

"You think this house has some sort of connection with our suspects?" Simon asked.

"Maybe," Mark said thoughtfully.

"You know, I think you're right," Blair said.

Simon looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Well, it's something that one of them said when we first got here. He said, 'Welcome to my house of horrors.' Now, at first, I thought he was referring to all the horrors we were about to see. But what if he wasn't? What if something bad happened here? What if they used to live here and something horrible happened?"

"I don't know, Sandburg. That's a stretch," Simon said doubtfully.

"I know that, Simon, but it's the only lead we've got."

"Yeah. If only we could do a search on the house. Maybe cross-reference that with the three names Jim gave us. We might be able to find something," Mark said.

"If only we had a computer," Blair sighed. "And without any phones, we can't call anyone to do the search for us."

"I wouldn't say that," Simon said cryptically.

Blair and Mark looked at him quizzically. Simon motioned for them to follow as he headed back up the stairs. He opened the first door he came to, which led to an empty bedroom. After inspecting the room thoroughly, he beckoned them inside and shut the door.

"Ok, there are no cameras in here," Simon said as he pulled a cell phone from his overcoat.

Blair's eyes widened. "Simon, where did you get that?"

"I managed to snag one after I made my phone calls, with my back to the cameras of course."

"All right, Simon! Here, let me have that," Blair said, reaching for the phone.

Simon pulled it out of the young man's reach. "What are you doing?"

"Look, we need that information fast, don't we? I know someone who could do the search faster than anybody."

Simon sighed and handed the phone to the young man. "All right, but don't tell him more than you have to."

"Yeah, I know the drill," Blair said, taking the phone and flipping it open. He moved away from the other two as he dialed.

Mark went to stand next to Simon, watching the young man curiously. "What's his involvement in all this?"

"Jim's his best friend. And his partner. And his roommate."

"How did they hook up?"

"Blair's doing his dissertation on closed societies and the police department is his subject. He just happened to get partnered with Ellison. He's sort of become an unofficial member of the team."

Mark nodded, intrigued by this man who, with his small stature and '60s style haircut, didn't seem the type to be hanging with cops.

Blair walked back to Simon and Mark, closing the phone. "He said he'll do it. He'll call back once he has something."

"All right. Just make sure to put the phone on vibrate. We don't know for sure that there aren't cameras hidden somewhere in this house," Simon said.

Blair nodded as he set the phone to vibrate and put it in his pocket, making sure it was out of sight.

"Well, we better get back."

They exited the room and were met with Henri Brown.

"Here you guys are. I've been looking for you. Dr. Sloan, it's your turn."

Mark nodded solemnly and led the way down the hall. He entered the room alone and sat down at the table. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the headset and put it on.

"Where were you?" the man in the white mask asked.

"Forgive me if I don't like to watch the suffering of others. I'm not an animal unlike some people," Mark said harshly.

"Ooh, you're feisty when you're angry," Black Mask said. "Or is that fear?" He turned to the other. "What do you think?"

"I think it's fear."

"Let's just get on with it," Mark said impatiently.

"Very well," White Mask said. He moved aside so that Mark could have a good look at his son strapped to the chair.

"Son, are you all right?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Dad."

The questions came and went in rabid succession and Mark answered them all correctly and without hesitation. He was glad he and his son talked, both back then and now, so he was pretty confident that he knew just about everything about his son. Maybe he could get through this without having to see his son suffer.

"Very good, Dr. Sloan," White Mask said, sounding genuinely impressed. "You're the first one to actually answer all of the questions right in one round. Who knows? Your son may just live through this. Until tomorrow. 9AM sharp. Pleasant dreams everyone." With those parting words, the screens went black.

Mark breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in the chair, removing the headset. Everyone else entered the room, and Blair moved forward to place a hand on the doctor's shoulder.

"That was pretty good, Dr. Sloan. You really know your son."

Mark smiled up at the young man. "We spend a lot of time together. We live together. We work together. We even play together. I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost him."

Blair knelt down next to the seat. "You're not going to lose him. As long as you answer the questions right, and something tells me that that's not going to be too hard."

Mark nodded. "Thank you. And call me Mark."

"Mark. I'm Blair."

"So what do we do now?" Brown asked.

"Well, obviously there's not going to be another session until tomorrow so we wait. Try to get some sleep," Simon said.

Blair snorted. "Yeah right. Like any of us are going to get any sleep."

Simon sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I know. At least try."

The room emptied until only Mark and Blair were left. Mark hadn't even attempted to get up. He just didn't feel like moving just yet. Blair sighed and leaned back against the table.

"Yeah right. I don't even want to try to go to sleep," Blair muttered.

Mark looked up at him. "Worried about your friend?" he asked.

Blair blew out a long breath, looking down at the floor. "Yeah. You know, Mark, when I look at you and see the way you act, I can tell you're a good father. But William Ellison isn't like you. He and Jim didn't get along, not even when Jim was a kid. He was never there. He was always working." He looked into the compassionate blue eyes of the older man. "He pitted Jim and his brother against each other, played favorites. When Jim was old enough, he took off and joined the army. They haven't spoken to each other since. They only just now started talking again. I'm just afraid that Mr. Ellison won't be able to pass this test, and I'm going to lose the best friend I've ever had." Blair's voice broke, and he blinked away the tears that wanted to fall.

Mark stood and put a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder. "Hey, it's going to be ok. We're going to find these guys."

"Yeah, but will it be in time?"

"You know Jim pretty well, don't you?"

"Yeah. I'd like to think I do. I mean I don't know everything. He doesn't talk much. He keeps a lot of stuff hidden. But I know him better than anybody else does."

"Then tell him. Tell him everything you know about Jim," Mark suggested.

Blair looked up at Mark, a ghost of a smile forming on his face. "Yeah. Now there's an idea." The smile faded. "Hey, where is he anyway?" he asked, just realizing that he hadn't seen the other man since he left that room.

Mark frowned. "I don't now. Come on."

Blair followed Mark out of the room. He pointed to the left. "He went that way I think."

They walked down the hall together, each glancing through open doorways. They paused when they heard a loud bang. They looked at each other and then hurried down the hall to a bedroom with two beds, one against each wall. They saw William Ellison with one fist buried in the wall.

"Oh Jesus," Blair muttered as the two hurried toward the older man.

"Are you all right?" Mark asked.

William was breathing heavily, and his mouth was set in a firm line. "My hand's stuck."

"Do you feel better?" Blair asked as he and Mark worked to carefully remove William's hand from the wall.

"A little bit."

"Yeah, well, putting holes in walls is not going to help Jim."

"You think I don't know that," William snapped. "I was angry, and the next thing I know my fist is in the wall." He let out a hiss and then held his breath as Blair and Mark extricated his fist from the wall. He looked at his bloody knuckles with bits of plaster stuck to them and winced.

"Here, let me have a look at that," Mark said, taking William's injured hand in his own. He moved the fingers gently but stopped when William let a cry of pain. "Yeah, you definitely broke your hand. Come on. Let's get this cleaned up and we'll see what I can do." He started leading the injured man toward the door.

"Mr. Ellison," Blair called out. William turned back to face him. "When's he done, we need to talk."

Jim sat leaning against the wall. He looked at Steve who was trying to see if he could pry the boards off the window. He was having little success. He looked at the other two occupants of the room. Britney lay on her side curled into a tight ball facing the opposite wall. Jim could tell she wasn't asleep by her heartbeat. Quiet sobs racked her small frame. Kane sat leaning against the wall next to her, his knees pulled up to his chest and his eyes closed. The three of them weren't in very good shape. The only one who hadn't gotten shocked was Steve.

He looked at the other detective again. "You and your father are close," Jim said.

Steve paused and looked back at the other man. "Yeah. I don't know what I'd do without him."

"Good. At least one of us will be in good shape."

Jim cocked his head to the side suddenly as the sound of footsteps caught his attention. He sat up straight and looked toward the door. Steve, noticing Jim's attention was fixed on the door, moved to the other man's side.

"What is it?"

"Someone's coming."

"I don't hear anything."

The footsteps stopped right outside. Something was shoved under the door and the footsteps retreated quickly. Britney sat up and Kane scooted forward a little. Jim crawled to the door and picked up the metal object.

"What is that?" Kane asked.

"Lock picks," Jim said.

"Lock picks?" Steve said, puzzled. "Why would they give us lock picks?"

"Maxi," Jim whispered, remembering the third presence here and what the other had said about her.

"What?" Steve asked.

Jim shook his head. "Never mind." He moved to kneel in front of the door so he was eye level with the doorknob.

"Can you pick it?" Steve asked.

Jim finished with the lock quickly. It surprised him at how incredibly easy that was. The tumblers in the lock clicked and the door opened. Jim smiled up at Steve who returned it.

"Does that answer your question?" Jim asked. He stood up. "Let's go."

Jim moved slowly down the hall with the other three following close behind. He cranked up his hearing, listening for the two captors' heartbeats. He found one to be moving toward the back of the building away from them and the other was in the room just ahead of them. Unfortunately, that was the way they had to go. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for them to follow him.

He called a halt just outside an expansive room. Dialing up his sight, he could see a door on the other side, which Jim assumed was the exit. He could also see one of the kidnappers sitting at another bank of monitors, watching them intently. Jim couldn't tell which one it was because he wasn't wearing his mask.

"Stay here," he whispered to the others.

He moved stealthily into the room. Taking careful steps, he crept up behind the man. He tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned, Jim punched him in the face, knocking him out. He motioned for the others to enter.

"Go," Jim said, indicating the door.

"What about you?" Britney asked.

"I'll be along in a minute. Now go."

Steve took her arm and led the way out of the door into the night. Jim turned to the unconscious man and started searching him. He found a gun in his waistband and took it. He then ran after the others. He dialed up his sight to see through the darkness and moved along the wall, trying to be as quiet as possible. Reaching the end of the building, he turned the corner and stopped dead. A man stood with an arm around Britney's neck and a gun pointed at her head. Steve and Kane were on their knees on either side of him. Steve gave Jim an apologetic look.

Jim was confused though. The greasy, black hair, the brown eyes, muscular physique, and thin face, it was the same guy Jim had just knocked out inside. But that couldn't be. There was no way he could have gotten outside before Jim and capture the others. That meant only one thing.

"Twins," Jim said.

The man smiled slightly. "You must have already met my brother. Put down the gun."

"Yeah," Jim said, dropping the gun to the ground. "I hit him over the head. So which one are you, Dan or Ricki?"

The man's eyes widened momentarily. The surprise vanished quickly however, and he once again looked smug. "Dan," he answered. "I don't know how you found out our names, and I don't care. What I do want to know is how you managed to get out."

Jim crossed his arms and didn't answer.

"Did you have help?"

Jim looked at him, not liking where this was going. According to the conversation he had overheard earlier, Dan here didn't trust this Maxi very much. Jim knew that it had to be Maxi who had slipped him the lock picks, and if he suspected that she helped them, who knows what he might do to her. He hated to give up the lock picks, but he couldn't let anything happen to this girl if she was trying to help them.

"I picked the lock," Jim replied.

Dan's eyes narrowed. "With what?"

"A set of lock picks I keep hidden in my shoe for just such an occasion."

"Throw them away."

Jim sighed. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the set of lock picks. He tossed them into the grass.

"Now move," Dan ordered.

Jim took a careful look at his surroundings as he turned and walked back to the entrance. They seemed to be in a secluded area. There was a mass of trees to the left and a deserted road to the right. Judging by how long the drive was, they had to be on the outskirts of Cascade. As they walked, Jim noticed a word printed on the side of the building. Ubisoft. He committed that word to memory.

They re-entered the warehouse just as Ricki was starting to come around. They stopped next to the man, and Dan kicked him lightly in the thigh.

"Get up you wuss," Dan said.

Ricki sat up slowly, holding his head. "Wuss? Wait till you get whacked over the head, see how you feel. What happened?" He looked up, surprised to see the prisoners. "How did they get out?"

"Picked the lock with some lock picks. You were supposed to search them thoroughly," Dan said indignantly.

"I did," Ricki insisted.

"Yeah, right. Take these three back to the room," Dan said, indicating Steve, Kane, and Britney.

"What about him?" Ricki asked, looking at Jim.

"I want him separate from the others. Plus I want to teach a lesson about trying to escape."

Dan dragged Jim to a different room. This one was narrower than the other room, and it was completely empty. Dan spun Jim around and hit him in the face and gut a few times. He then threw him to the floor and started kicking him repeatedly in the chest and abdomen, ending with a kick to the head that had Jim dazed. Dan lifted Jim's head up and looked him in the eye.

"You try to escape again, and I'll kill you."

Jim spit a mouth full of blood in Dan's face. "Do that…and you'll…never finish…your test," Jim answered breathlessly, cringing from the pain in his gut.

Dan stood up and wiped the blood from his face. "You're not the only son he's got." With those parting words, he left Jim alone.

Steven, Jim thought. He collapsed to the floor, his energy spent. His vision started to gray out, and he couldn't hold onto consciousness any longer.

Blair lay on a bed in one of the rooms. Only four rooms had beds, two beds in each room so they each had to bunk with somebody. Blair had picked a room and dropped down on the bed, but he knew he wasn't going to get much sleep. He was afraid of what he'd see if he did. He couldn't get the image of Jim writhing in agony out of his mind.

A knock at the door brought Blair's head up. Mark Sloan stood in the doorway, one hand on the doorframe.

"Knock. Knock. Mind if I join you?" Mark asked.

"Sure. No one's taken that bed yet."

Mark sat on the bed and faced the younger man. "How did things go with Mr. Ellison?"

"Pretty good, I think. I told him everything I know about Jim. Hopefully, he'll be more prepared tomorrow." Blair sat up and swung his feet off the bed. "How's Mr. Ellison's hand. I never got to ask."

"Well, it's definitely broken. I cleaned up the wound, wrapped up the hand, and immobilized the fingers. That's about all I can do until we can get him to a hospital."

Blair nodded. He scooted back on the bed so he could lean against the wall. There was silence between them for a few minutes.

"Can I ask you something?" Mark asked.

"Sure. I'm not going to sleep any time soon."

Mark smiled. "How did you and Jim meet?" he inquired.

Blair smiled as he reminisced about that fateful meeting all those years ago. He knew he couldn't give the whole story without revealing Jim's Sentinel abilities, but he could tell some of it.

"Well, you see it's very simple. I saved his life," Blair answered.

Mark raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah, he almost got hit by a garbage truck and I pushed him out of the way just in time. We've been friends ever since."

"How did you end up being his roommate?" Mark asked.

"Oh," Blair said, scratching the back of his head. "Well, Jim graciously offered his place after mine blew up."

Mark's eyebrows rose even higher into his hairline. "Your place blew up?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah. You see I was living in this warehouse and there was this drug lab in the same building and it blew up," Blair said sheepishly.

"Why were you living in a warehouse?"

"Well, I'm a lowly grad student and TA, and I don't earn that much money. Besides, where else am I going to get 10,000 square feet for $850 a month? Anyway, I moved in with Jim and the rest as they say is history."

"So what's Jim like?" Mark asked.

Blair looked at the older man curiously. "Why all the questions?"

"I sort of consider myself an amateur detective. I help Steve out on some of his cases, and I ask a lot of questions. Besides, I want to know more about who's with my son, just for my piece of mind."

Blair nodded in understanding. "Well, let's see. He's honest, loyal, hardworking, and the best damn cop I know. He's very good at his job. He's perceptive and persistent as hell. He doesn't give up easily. And he can be cold and hard and overbearing sometimes. And angry. He gets angry pretty easily, but you know under that gruff exterior, he's really a great guy. He's caring, gentle, and kind-hearted. And he jokes a lot. We joke around all the time." Blair paused with a whimsical smile on his face. "He's the best friend a guy could hope for."

Mark returned his smile. "Sound's like he's a great guy."

Blair nodded. "Yeah, if anyone can get them out, it's Jim."

Blair jumped suddenly as he felt a vibrating sensation in his coat. It took him a few minutes to realize it was the cell phone. He looked at Mark meaningfully and then motioned for him to join him out in the hall. Out in the hall, they saw Simon walking by.

"Simon," Blair called and then beckoned him over. Once the captain was with them, Blair answered the phone. "Hey man, what do you have for me?" Blair stepped away to listen. A few minutes later, he came back, flipping the phone shut.

"So what do you have?" Simon asked.

"Well, this house has been empty for years, but about thirty years ago, a young couple, Natalie and Justin Boone, moved in. Natalie Boone was killed in a car crash ten years later, and it was said that Justin Boone didn't take his wife's death very well."

"What do you mean?" Mark asked.

"Well, he started drinking heavily and going out to bars all the time. He had started bar brawls on numerous occasions."

"Ok, so what's this got to do with anything?" Simon asked.

"They had three children before Natalie was killed. Twin boys named Dan and Ricki and a little girl named Maxine."

Simon nodded in understanding. "So they did used to live here."

"And their father was an abusive alcoholic. They were probably abused many times during their childhood," Mark said.

"Which explains the house of horrors reference. A lot of bad things probably happened here," Blair said.

"It also explains why they're doing this," Simon pointed out. "What happened to the father?"

"He was found dead in an alley. He was apparently beaten to death. The police never figured out who did it."

"So what happened to the kids?" Mark inquired.

"Dan and Ricki were eighteen at the time so they were old enough to go out on their own and they took custody of Maxi who was thirteen."

"Well at least we've got their full names. I'll call Joel in the morning and have him run a background check on them. Maybe get a current address." Simon took the phone from the Blair and left.

Blair noticed Mark looking at him. "What?"

"Good work," Mark said.

Blair blushed. "I didn't do anything. I just knew the right person."

"It's always good to have connections. Sometimes it's the only thing that helps solve a case. Believe me. I know." Mark put an arm around the young man's shoulders. "Come on. Let's try to get some sleep before dawn."

Jim slowly returned to consciousness. He took stock of his injuries. His stomach and chest ached and his head throbbed mercilessly. Feeling along his ribcage, he didn't think any of his ribs were broken, but he was going to have some spectacular bruises when this was over. He felt along his skull and found a large bloody lump on the side of his head. He probably had a concussion.

He slowly opened his eyes to a darkened room smaller than the one he'd been in before. He couldn't tell how long he'd been out since there were no windows in this room, but he suspected he'd been out for quite sometime. He tried to sit up but lay back down immediately as pain shot through his abdominal muscles. He groaned as he clutched his stomach. Ok, note to self, don't use stomach muscles. Once the pain died down a bit, he used the wall to push himself up to a sitting position.

The door opened suddenly, and a young woman walked in carrying a tray full of food and a first aid kit. She was about in her mid-twenties with long wavy brown hair and blue eyes. Jim watched her carefully as she approached.

"Um, hi," she said timidly. "I brought you breakfast."

So it was morning, which meant he'd been out all night. Jim looked at the girl again, giving her close scrutiny. He suspected this was Maxi, and Jim wanted to know if she was really trying to help them or if it was all a trick. It wouldn't be the first time Jim had been fooled by a pretty face. But looking at her closely, she didn't look lethal or dangerous like the twins. She looked nervous, scared, and a little sad.

"Um, I-I was also going to tend to your injuries," the woman spoke again. She was shifting nervously under the intense gaze of the ice blue eyes.

Jim didn't say anything, but he nodded his head, giving her permission. The girl seemed to relax a bit as she knelt down at his side. She placed the tray on the floor in front of Jim and opened the first aid kit. She turned Jim's head to the side so that she could see the wound better and started wiping away the blood. Jim winced.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm sort of an amateur at this, but I've lots of practice. Besides, I always wanted to be a doctor."

"You're Maxi, aren't you?" Jim asked.

She paused for a fraction of a second before continuing to wipe away the blood. "How did you know that?"

"I heard the other two talking." Jim looked at her directly. "You're the one who slipped the lock picks under the door. You're the one who tried to help us escape."

Maxi sighed as she dabbed some antiseptic onto the wound. "Yeah, and I'm sorry that didn't work out. I've been trying to think of another way to get you guys out."

"Why are you helping us?"

"Because I don't agree with what my brothers are doing."

Oh, they're her brothers, Jim thought. "If you don't agree with what they're doing, then why haven't you gone to the police?"

"I tried once, but they caught me, and Dan said that if I tried it again, he'd kill me. And I wouldn't put it past him. Besides, a part of me understands why they're doing this."

"What?" Jim said incredulously.

Maxi sighed. "Mom died when we were young and we were left with our dad. But Dad didn't take her death very well, and he started drinking, heavily. Then he started hitting us, sometimes for no apparent reason. I used to be afraid to come home from school. I'd delay it as much as possible, hoping that when I did get home, he either wouldn't be there or he'd be too drunk to notice." There was a sniffle and Maxi wiped at her eyes.

"You know Dan and Ricki weren't always like this. They were jokers. They laughed all the time. They used to make me laugh. They always protected me and played with me, but as the years went by, all that changed. I guess they couldn't take it, all the beatings and stuff. They became angry and vengeful. They talked about getting Dad back for all the things he'd done. Then one day, they did."

"What do you mean?" Jim asked.

Maxi took a moment to compose herself before answering. "When they reached eighteen they came up with a plan. Dad left to go to some bar or another like he always did. Dan and Ricki followed him. I knew what they were going to do, but I couldn't do anything to stop it." Her eyes filled with tears and there was a hitch in her breathing as she tried not to cry. "Th-they beat him to death with crowbars and left him in an alley. The police never arrested anyone, and I just couldn't say anything. After all, they were brothers, and they were the only family I had." She closed her eyes and the tears finally fell.

Jim put his arm around her and pulled her close. "It's ok. You said it yourself. There was nothing you could have done."

Maxi sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I know."

"What happened after that?"

"They took care of me. They acted like nothing had happened. They didn't talk about what they did and I didn't ask. I just wanted to forget about it. After a while, I thought everything was going back to the way things were. But I guess they'd been planning this since then. Everything they did, and all the money they earned was in preparation for this."

"How did they get you involved?" Jim asked.

"They asked me if I wanted to help with a big project they were working on. They wouldn't tell me what it was, but I agreed to do it anyway. They told me all I had to do was watch the cameras and make sure the people on them weren't doing anything suspicious. At first, that's all I did, but then I heard the screams. And when I walked in the room and saw what they were doing, I knew what they had planned all along. I wanted to do something. I wanted to stop them, but I couldn't move. It was like I was frozen in place. I couldn't do anything but watch."

She closed her eyes and took a hitching breath. "It was after that that I tried to call the police, but as I said before, I got caught. Ever since then, I haven't participated at all. I haven't even watched the cameras. I swear to you. I never was involved with the kidnapping and the torture and the deaths. I've just tried to help the victims out as much as I can. I haven't been doing a very good job."

There was such misery in Maxi's face and tone that Jim's heart went out to her. He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "Hey, you're doing your best under the circumstances. There are some that have lived. I'm assuming you had a hand in that?"

Maxi nodded. "Yeah, they're the ones that I helped escape. No one's passed the test yet. It's just so hard because we change locations every time, and I only have a limited amount of time to get to know the layout and everything and figure out a plan." She was starting to get upset again.

Jim tightened his arm around her. "Hey, hey. Shhh. Shhh. It's ok. It's not your fault. Like I said, you're doing your best and that's all anybody can ask of you."

"Can you help me get away?" The question was so soft Jim had to use his Sentinel hearing to hear it.

"I'll do my best, but first we have to find a way out here."

Maxi sniffed and sat up straight, wiping her eyes. She calmed down some and was ready to address the situation again with renewed vigor. "Right. I've been trying to come up with another way to get you guys out. I don't have anymore lock picks so that's out."

Jim thought about what they could do. They didn't have a whole lot of options available to them. There had to be a way to get them out without alerting the dynamic duo.

"You know it would be so easy if this place had a secret passage or something leading to the outside," Maxi said.

Jim looked at her. That remark reminded him of something Blair once told him.

*You know, Jim. This whole area used to be inhabited by smugglers. Some of the buildings here had once been owned by these smugglers, and they had secret under storage areas put in to hide their contraband. They had secret passageways put in leading to the outside so that they could make a clean getaway when the police showed up. It's said that some of these buildings still have those passageways hidden somewhere inside.*

Jim smiled. "Maybe there is," he said.

Maxi looked at him quizzically. "Huh?"

"Someone once told me that this area had once been used by smugglers and that some of the buildings here had secret passageways that they used to escape when the police came knocking at their door."

"So you think there might be some underground passageway around here?"

"Maybe. It's worth a look."

"Well, I'll have a look, but this is a big area, and I don't even know what I'm looking for."

"Well, it would have to be some sort of hatch or trap door or maybe even a grate leading underground. And it would have to be somewhere where it wouldn't be seen from the road."

"The woods," Maxi said. "The surrounding woods are pretty thick. It would be perfect for something like that."

"Good," Jim said. "Look around there. See if you can find something."

"Sure, but it'll take time, and unfortunately, we're not going to find it before the next session," Maxi said regretfully.

Jim sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"Sorry."

Jim gave her a small smile and patted her shoulder. "It's ok. It's not your fault."

"Well," she said, gathering up the first aid supplies and putting them back in the kit. "I should be going." She stood up and brushed dirt off her jeans. She looked at the untouched tray of food. "You should eat. You'll need your strength. They'll be starting soon."

"Maxi," Jim called.

She paused on her way out and looked at him. "Yes?"

"Thanks."

She smiled shyly. "You're welcome."

"Will you be seeing the others?" Jim asked. She nodded. "Tell them what we're planning."

"Sure," she replied before leaving the room.

Jim leaned back against the wall. He looked down at the tray of food. Maxi was right. He'll need his strength if he was going to get through this next session. Besides, he hadn't realized until just that moment how hungry he was. He picked up a piece of bread and started munching.

Blair sat straight up bed with a strangled cry. His dreams had been filled images of Jim writhing and screaming in agony. After looking wildly around the room for a few minutes, he sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. He knew he was going to be seeing those images in his dreams for a while to come.

"Are you all right?"

Blair jumped at the voice, forgetting for a minute that there was someone else in the room. He looked over at the man on the other bed. The doctor looked exhausted with bags under his eyes, which was probably just how Blair looked as well. It was how he felt anyway. He and Mark had talked well into the night and had only fallen into a fitful sleep at dawn.

"Yeah," Blair answered. "Just a nightmare."

Mark nodded in understanding. "I had a few of those myself."

Blair yawned as he swung his sock-clad feet off the bed. Grabbing his sneakers where he had put them last night, he started putting them back on.

"What time is it?" he asked.

Mark looked at his watch. "It's a quarter to nine."

Blair sighed as he finished tying his laces. He sat up and slapped his hands on his knees. "Well, I guess it's time to face the day," he said grimly.

They both left the room and went down the hall where the monitors were. The others were already in the room waiting for the monitors to turn on. Blair looked at all the faces gathered around. Anxiousness, fear, and worry all vied for dominance on each one. Blair stood next to Simon.

"Did you sleep?" Simon asked.

"Not really, and when I did I had nightmares. You?"

"Not a wink."

Blair lowered his voice. "Did you call Joel?"

"Yeah," Simon whispered. "He's checking out the names right now."

Good, Blair thought. Then maybe they'll know more about them besides the fact that they're complete psychopaths with crappy childhoods. And maybe they just might find out something that could lead them to where they were holding Jim and the others.

The monitors suddenly switched on, capturing the attention of everyone in the room. The screen filled with the plastic white face of the mask. The scene was quite different. Gone were the chair and electric shock machine. Now a metal slab filled the space like that which would hold a cadaver in a morgue.

"Good morning. Did you all sleep well?" he asked.

Blair clenched his hands into tight fists. This guy was making him really angry. He wanted to knock him into the next county, or in the words of his illustrious partner, pummel that putz into a coma.

"Well, it's another day, and another session soon to begin. Sloan was last yesterday, so let's make him first today."

Standing next to Blair, Mark took a deep breath. Blair put a hand on his shoulder in an act of comfort, and Mark patted his hand in thanks.

"It's going to be ok," Blair said. He tried to sound confident but it just came off as an empty reassurance.

Mark smiled gratefully for the young man's attempt to comfort him. Steeling himself the events to come, Mark stepped forward as the rest of them filed out of the room. Mark put the headset on and sat down.

"Hello Dr. Sloan. Sleep well?" the man in the white mask asked.

"Fine. Can we get on with this?" Mark said impatiently.

"Very well."

He motioned off screen and a couple seconds later, Steve was being escorted into frame by the second assailant. Mark examined his son with a practiced eye and judged him to be no worse for wear. Mark relaxed somewhat. He watched as the two masked men stripped Steve of his shirt, strapped him to the table, and attached the lie detector to his body. When Steve was securely fastened to the table, the two men faced the camera once more.

"Now, let's begin."

"Wait," Mark said. "Before we start, I have a few questions of my own."

White Mask tilted his head curiously. "Alright. You got my attention. Ask away."

"Are you Dan or Ricki?" Mark asked.

Mark could see the man's blue eyes widened through the eyeholes in the mask. Mark fought the urge to smile.

"Excuse me?"

"Those are your names, aren't they? Dan and Ricki Boone. Twin brothers. Mother died when you were children. Father was an abusive drunk who was beaten to death when you were eighteen. The police never figured out who did it. But we both know who did it."

Twin #1 let out a short laugh before removing his mask. In the background, his brother did the same.

"You've done your homework. How did you find out so much about us?"

"We have our resources."

"In that house, I don't think so," Twin #2 said, throwing the black mask to the floor. "Let's see. None of you left the house, that much I know. So how did you get this information? One of you have a cell phone?"

"Of course not," Mark answered, hoping he sounded sincere. "We gave up our cell phones when we arrived, remember? No one went near the box. I'm sure you were watching." Mark paused, watching as the men thought about this new development. "Are you going to answer my question?" Mark finally asked.

"Which one?" Twin #1 asked.

"Both."

"I'm Dan. That's Ricki." He jerked his head back at his twin standing behind him. "And I don't know who killed our father. He had a lot of enemies."

"Including two pissed off teenagers. He abused you and your little sister ever since your mother died and you couldn't take it anymore so you killed him."

"That's a load of bullshit," Ricki exclaimed angrily. "You have no proof."

"And we've had just about enough of this," Dan said.

Rick pulled a metal tray forward like one that could be found at a hospital. He pulled off the sheet covering it to reveal several rather nasty-looking knives arranged in neat rows on the tray. Dan picked up a knife with a serrated edge and turned toward the camera.

"Same rules apply as yesterday, but this time we're going to do something a little different," Dan said. "For every question you get wrong, I carve five cuts into your son's body. Oh don't worry, they won't be very deep. We wouldn't want him to bleed out on us. But this…" He paused, turned, and jammed the knife into Steve's hand. Steve cried out in pain.

"NO!" Mark cried, jumping to his feet.

"That was for your mouth," Dan went on.

"Let that be a lesson to the rest of you," Ricki said to the room at large. "Don't speak unless you're answering a question."

"Now," Dan said, pulling the knife out of Steve's hand. "We can go on."

Mark stared at his son's bleeding hand and listened to his heavy breathing. Mark closed his eyes. He should have kept his mouth shut. It was his mouth that had caused his son unnecessary pain.

The session went well after that. Mark once again answered every question right and was aloud to leave the room, but that didn't change the fact that his son now had a hole in his hand because of him. It was his gun hand. If that wound caused any serious damage, Steve may not be able to fire a gun and he may not be able to be a cop anymore. Then not only would he be responsible for causing Steve pain, but also for destroying his career and his life. How could he live with something like that?

Mark didn't notice that he had made it out into the hallway until he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked up into Blair's concerned blue eyes.

"Hey, are you ok?" Blair asked.

Mark nodded. He wasn't sure he could speak just yet.

"What happened in there, it wasn't your fault."

Mark kept his head down. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"You didn't know he was going to do that."

"That's right." Mark looked up at Captain Simon Banks standing on his other side. "Besides, you rattled their cages, made them nervous, and when criminals get nervous they make stupid mistakes. This could help us."

Mark sighed. "Yeah, I just hope I didn't destroy his career in the process," he mumbled and then walked away.

Blair gave Simon a puzzled look. "What did he mean by that?"

Simon rubbed his forehead. "That was probably his gun hand. If his hand is too damaged, he won't be able to fire a gun, which means…"

"He won't be able to be a police officer. Oh man," Blair finished with a groan. He was about to follow the older man but was stopped by Simon's hand on his shoulder.

"No, I'll go check on him. Jim's up next. You stay here in case he has another message he needs to get to us," the captain said.

Blair closed his eyes and nodded. Simon was right. If Jim did find out more information, Blair would be the only one who could interpret his messages. And as much as he hated seeing his best friend suffer, he knew Jim was counting on him to decode his messages in order to rescue him.

As Simon walked away in the direction Mark had gone, Blair turned around and went to stand next to William Ellison who so far hadn't set foot into the room just yet. It looked like he was trying to gather his courage to step forward. Blair put his hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ok?" Blair asked.

"I don't know if I can go through this again," William replied.

"It's going to be ok. Just remember everything I told you. Trust me."

William tried to smile but it just came off as a grimace. "I wish I had your confidence."

I wish I did too, Blair thought. He removed his hand from William's shoulder and held his hands in front of him to keep them from shaking.

William took a deep breath and took a step forward. He paused in the doorway and turned back to Blair. "I was wrong about you. I'm sorry," he said before entering the lion's den.

When the door closed, Blair stood there perplexed for a moment before moving to the window with the others. He had his notepad and pen ready. William sat down in the chair and put the headset on.

"You certainly took your time," Dan said.

"Let's just get on with it," William said with a confidence he didn't feel.

"Very well."

Dan motioned off camera once again and Ricki came on screen dragging an obviously injured Jim along with him. Blair was horrified at what he saw. There was extensive bruising on Jim's face and there was a good-sized lump on the side of his head that looked like it had been bleeding at one point before it was bandaged. From the way Jim held an arm to his gut, Blair suspected he also had injured ribs.

William sat forward upon seeing the condition his son was in. "Oh god. What did you do to him?"

"Your son tried to escape last night. He had to be punished," Dan replied.

"You bastards," William said angrily. He didn't raise his voice, but his tone was menacing.

"It's ok, Dad," Jim said.

William held his tongue, squashing his anger deep down inside him. He sat back and tried to appear calm even though he was itching to just strangle these two for laying a finger on his son.

They watched as Dan and Ricki took off Jim's shirt. Blair winced at the deep bruising to his partner's abdomen and chest. The twins then proceeded to tie Jim down on the table and then attached the lie detector. Blair looked carefully at the movements of his hands, hoping for another clue that could help them. So he was poised and ready when Jim's hand started tapping the table in the pattern of Morse code.

"Yes," Blair muttered as he started writing. He tuned out the voices and concentrated solely on Jim's hand movements. When he was finished, he had one single word written on the page. 'Ubisoft.'

"What is that?" Brown asked. He had been looking over Blair's shoulder, trying to see what he was writing.

Brow furrowed in puzzlement, Blair answered, "It's a computer company. It makes computer games."

"How does that help us?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, I'm afraid that's a wrong answer." Dan's voice floated to Blair's ears and sent a cold shiver down his spine.

Blair brought his head up sharply. "No," he breathed.

Jim lay on the table staring at the ceiling, concentrating on forming the word with his fingers. He kept one ear on the questions being asked so that he may answer in the affirmative or not on whether his father answered right. He was impressed. Three questions so far, and his father had gotten them all right.

They were easy questions, ones that anyone who knew him would know. How long had he been with the police? Who was his first partner? Where did he live now? Jim had a feeling that Blair had told his father all about him. Even though they had been rebuilding their relationship, Jim hadn't told his father everything about him just yet. Jim could relax some with that knowledge. With his partner feeding his father information, he should be all right. Blair knew practically everything about him.

"How long had he been married?" Dan asked.

Except that. Jim's heart sank. That was something he hadn't cared to tell Blair about, and apparently Blair didn't feel the need to ask. Jim closed his eyes and turned down his pain receptors, expectant of the torture to come.

"Uh," William said, his voice shaky. "I don't…um…two years."

Jim opened his eyes resignedly and shook his head.

"Oh, I'm afraid that's a wrong answer," Dan said, almost cheerily.

Dan picked up a knife from the tray and held it up. It wasn't a particularly large knife, more like a dagger with a smooth edge. Jim looked at the ceiling. He jumped slightly when he felt the cool metal touch his skin and then the sting as the blade made the first cut on his right side along the bottom of his ribcage. Dan worked with slow, precise movements, almost like a doctor making an incision. Jim barely felt the first cut, but as it went on, he began to feel the pain more and more despite his best efforts to keep the pain dial turned down.

Jim winced with each cut made but he didn't cry out. Dan made two cuts on each side just below the ribcage and one diagonally across the chest. When he was finished, they each throbbed in time with Jim's heartbeat. He could feel the blood dripping down his sides onto the table, but they weren't gushing so they couldn't have been too bad. Jim finally got a grip on the dial that had been slipping out his control and turned it down.

"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Dan asked, putting the bloody knife back on the tray.

Ricki stepped forward to ask the final question. They had been taking turns asking the questions. "Who is the most important person in your son's life?"

Jim turned his head to look at his father's face on the monitors. Jim saw many emotions play across his father's face. Sadness, despair, anguish, and…acceptance. He knew the answer. It wasn't what he wanted, but he accepted it.

It took a moment for William to answer. When he finally did, it was with understanding. "His best friend, Blair Sandburg."

Dan and Ricki looked to Jim for confirmation who answered in the affirmative.

"Congratulations," Ricki said. "Your son gets to live another day."

They released the leather straps that had bound Jim and, after giving him his shirt back, Ricki escorted him back to his room. Ricki threw him roughly through the door and then closed and locked it. Jim sat down on the floor and took a closer look at the cuts. They had already stopped bleeding. He used his shirt to clean the wounds as best he could, but without proper medical supplies, there wasn't much else he could.

He leaned back against the wall, closed his eyes, and turned up his hearing. He had taken to listening to the others' sessions just to see how things went and how badly injured each one was. He listened as Ricki opened the door down the hall. Looks like Kane was next. Jim had to give him props. He has handled this whole thing pretty well. He's kept calm and has even taken to being sort of a protector for Britney.

Jim listened as the questions were being asked. Some were the standard questions that every parent should know about their child and then there were ones that were uniquely about Kane. The session went marginally well. Only one wrong answer. Jim was surprised how short the torturing was. When it was happening to him, it had felt like an eternity. When it was all over, they escorted Kane back to the room down the hall and now it was Britney's turn. Poor kid. She was really scared and all she wanted was to go home. Jim hoped she would get the chance.

Jim listened as the young girl was escorted to the main room. She was stripped of her shirt and strapped down just as Jim had been. And then the questions began. Jim winced at the first wrong question and Britney's cry of pain as the cuts were being made. The second time worse. Britney let out a scream that time that almost deafened Jim. And then came the third wrong answer. Jim's breath caught in his throat as he heard Dan's voice.

"You lose."

Then there was a scream that was abruptly cut off and a heartbeat ceased. Jim's eyes snapped open with a gasp, her father's anguished cry still ringing in his ears.

"Oh god, no," Jim whispered. "Damn it!" He hit the wall with his fist. He closed his eyes and laid his head on his bent knees.

Blair sat on the bed in his temporary room, his knees pulled up to his chest. That poor girl. He still couldn't believe that they just ruthlessly stabbed her right there in front of her father. It was brutal. And Mercer was pretty upset. He was about ready to tear apart the monitoring equipment. He had to be restrained. Mark finally had to sedate him. They were having an ambulance meet them outside to take him to the hospital to be monitored.

"Are you ok?"

Blair looked up at Simon standing in the doorway. "I don't know," he replied, lowering his eyes.

Simon came in and sat down on the bed next to Blair.

"She was just a kid, Simon," Blair said quietly.

"I know," Simon said.

"She didn't deserve any of that. God, that poor girl." Blair fought to keep the tears from spilling down his cheeks.

Simon patted Blair's leg gently. "There was nothing we could have done."

"That could have been Jim, you know."

"But it wasn't. He's alive."

"Yeah, but for how long. We've got to find them before tomorrow Simon. The next session will be about their future. I don't know much about what Jim's wants for the future, and I'm willing to bet that William knows even less. I'm afraid he won't survive the next session."

Simon sighed. "Yeah, I know." He glanced up at the camera in the corner of the room and then motioned with his head for Blair to follow him.

They went out into the hall where they found Rafe and Brown lounging. Seeing the serious expression on Simon's face, they came over to them.

"What's going on?" Rafe asked.

Before Simon could answer, Mark came around the corner. Blair motioned for him to come join them. Once the doctor was within earshot, Simon explained.

"I got a call from Joel about that background check on our two suspects."

"Huh?" Rafe said, confused.

"How?" Brown asked.

Simon pulled out the cell phone. "I managed to grab a cell phone from the box without them noticing."

The two detectives looked impressed, but Mark and Blair were getting impatient.

"What did you find out?" Mark asked.

"Well, not much I'm afraid. Neither one of them have a criminal record, not even a speeding ticket. After their father was killed, the three of them moved to New York where the girl, Maxi, graduated college studying medicine. Dan and Rick held down steady jobs. There was never any kind of trouble."

"That helps," Blair said sarcastically.

"Anything else?" Mark asked.

"Well, their mother is deceased. We already know that. Um, their father used to work at a computer company, but after his wife died, he started drinking and soon after that lost his job."

Blair perked up. "Wait a minute. Did you say computer company?"

"Yeah." 

"Which one?"

Puzzled by the question, Simon replied, "Uh, I believe it was called Ubisoft."

"Ubisoft? Hey, isn't that the message that Jim gave you?" Brown asked Blair.

Blair nodded mutely, thinking.

"Now we know the significance," Brown said.

"But why would he give you that word?" Simon asked.

"Yeah, it has to have more significance other than the fact that that's where their father used to work," Rafe said.

"Maybe that's where they are," Mark said.

They all looked at him.

"What?" Simon asked.

"Well we know they're at an old warehouse, right?" Mark reasoned. "Maybe they're at one owned by Ubisolft."

"Or one that used to be owned by Ubisoft," Blair said thoughtfully. At the expectant looks, he explained. "Well, if I remember correctly, Ubisoft relocated to a new warehouse a couple of years ago. The company was expanding and they needed a bigger space." 

"Do you have any idea where the old warehouse was?" Simon asked.

"No, but if their father worked there, they probably know the terrain pretty well."

"It's a pretty safe bet that's where they are," Mark said.

Simon pulled out his cell phone and dialed. "Joel, I need you to do a search on Ubisoft. It's a computer company. I need to find out where their old warehouse was located. Get back to me as soon as you can." Slapping the phone shut, he turned back to the others. "Hopefully this will lead us straight to them."

"Yeah, but how are we going to get to them if we can't leave the house?" Blair asked.

Steve sat on the floor against the wall, holding his injured hand against his bare chest. He had used his shirt to try to stop the bleeding and then wrapped it up. He looked at Kane Stark who was lying on his side facing the wall. He was taking Britney's death pretty hard. Hell, so was he. That girl did not deserve what happened to her.

They both looked up when the door opened and Maxi entered. Steve remembered the first time he had seen her. He didn't know what to make of her at first. After hearing her tale and how she had been trying to help her brothers' victims as best she could, he admired her for her courage and strength. Looking at her now, she looked very sad.

"Hi," she said timidly.

"Hi."

She walked closer to Steve and knelt down next to him. Placing the first aid kit on the floor, she reached his injured hand. "Let me see." Taking his hand in her small ones, she unwrapped the shirt to reveal the ugly hole that was still oozing blood. She quickly and efficiently cleaned and disinfected the wound. "Can you move your fingers?" she asked.

Steve moved his fingers gingerly back and forth, wincing a little.

"Well, at least you can move your fingers," Maxi said as she proceeded to wrap his hand in gauze. "That probably means there can't be too much damage."

Steve watched her work, somewhat impressed. "You're good at this."

Maxi blushed. "Yeah, well, I studied medicine in college. I had hoped to go to med school, but then all this happened and I just didn't get the chance."

She finished treating Steve and then turned to Kane. "Ok, let me take a look at you."

"I'm fine," Kane said stubbornly.

"Yeah right. Humor me, ok?"

Kane sighed and lifted his shirt to reveal his blood-stained torso. The cuts had already stopped bleeding so Maxi started cleaning off the dirt and dried blood.

"I'm sorry about Britney," she said as she worked.

Kane grunted.

Maxi sat up straight. "I really am. I mean if I had gotten you guys out in the first place, she'd still be alive."

"That wasn't your fault," Steve said. "That was more our fault then yours. We're the ones that got caught."

"But I should have made sure they were preoccupied."

She finished cleaning the cuts on Kane's torso and then packed all the supplies back into the first aid kit. Sighing, she stood up.

"It's time to put a stop to this," she said.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"I'm going to talk to Jim. I think I know a way out of here. Be ready."

She left the room and walked down the hall where Jim was being imprisoned. Putting the first aid kit down on the floor, she entered the room. Jim looked up at her as if he'd been waiting for her.

"What did you find out?" he asked.

"I found an entrance to an underground tunnel in the woods that leads to this building," she replied.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "My dad used to work here. He was the boss. Before everything went to hell, he used to take me to work with him when I was little. I used to explore the grounds. I remember one day I found a trapdoor in my dad's office that lead to the outside. And this used to be my dad's office."

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Jim asked.

"I didn't remember until I found the entrance outside. It was a long time ago."

Jim dialed up his sight and looked around the room, but he didn't see any trapdoor. "Where?" he asked.

"I don't remember."

Jim got up and started moving around the room, feeling the floor very carefully. With his touch dialed almost to maximum, he tried to see if he could feel any seams in the floor. After twenty minutes, he stood up, sighing in defeat.

"I can't find anything. Are you sure this is the right room?"

"I'm positive, but…wait…it was in a closet."

Jim looked at each wall, but didn't see any doors besides the exit door. "There are no closets in here."

Maxi turned and pointed at the far right corner. "It was over there."

Jim walked over to that section of wall. With his eyesight dialed up, he couldn't see anything to indicate that there had been a door there. Moving closer, he knocked on the wall and heard a hollow echo on the other side. Running his fingers over the smooth surface, he closed his eyes and concentrated on his sense of touch, being careful not to zone. He opened his eyes when he felt a minute seam. He ran his fingers up the wall, tracing the outline of a door.

"I need a knife," he said.

"Hold on."

Maxi left the room and returned a few minutes later with a rather large knife, most likely one of the ones used in the session earlier in the day. Taking the knife, Jim used it to cut through the wall along the floor and ceiling and then all the way down the wall in a straight line. Then he used the blade to pry the door open.

"Looks like someone took the frame and doorknob off, sealed it shut, and then put wallpaper over it," Jim said, examining the doorway.

"But why would someone do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe to hide the fact that there is a trapdoor here. Did your brothers know about this?"

"No," Maxi replied, shaking her head. "I never told anyone about it. Besides, if they knew, I don't think they would have put you in here, even if they had sealed it. They wouldn't take that risk."

Jim shook his head. It didn't matter who or why this door was sealed. The only thing that mattered now was that this was their chance to escape. He walked into the small closet and knelt down to examine the floor. He found the trapdoor quickly and opened it to reveal a flight of stairs leading down into a dark passageway.

"We'll have to find a way to get the others out," Jim said.

"I might be able to get them in here, but I'll have to distract Dan and Ricki first." She paused in thought. Then she snapped her fingers. "And I think I know a way. Stay here."

She hurried out of the room. She checked to make sure her brothers were still in the main room watching the monitors for the cameras in the house except for one room in particular. Then she hurried into the torture room as she had come to call it. She approached the second set of monitors for the cameras in the room in the house where the sessions were performed. She pressed the button, turning on the cameras in the room she was in. She took a deep breath and waited.

Blair was on his way back from the bathroom. He was so exhausted. He hadn't had much sleep in the past two days, but he was afraid if he closed his eyes he'd see Jim being tortured. They had to get Jim out fast, but they couldn't do anything right now. They were still waiting on information on where the Ubisoft warehouse was, and Blair was getting impatient. How long does it take to do a search on one company?

Walking past the room with the monitors, he glanced through the window and paused. The monitors were on. But the next session wasn't until tomorrow. Something was up.

"Hey guys! Come here! Hurry!" Blair yelled, walking into the room.

Everyone came running in a few minutes later looking both tense and puzzled.

"What is it, Sandburg?" Simon asked. Then he noticed the monitors and the young girl on the screen.

"Who's that?" Rafe asked.

"Maxi," Blair said. "It's gotta be."

"Listen very carefully," Maxi said. "In a few minutes, I'm going to shut off the cameras in the house. You have to hurry. We're at the old Ubisoft warehouse on the outskirts of Cascade. Now I can get them out, but we're far from any kind of help. There's only one road and no one uses it that much anymore. I don't know how long we can stay hidden from my brothers."

She moved off screen for a few minutes. They looked up at the camera on the wall and saw the red light go off. Maxi retuned.

"It's done. I have to go. Hurry."

The monitors switched off.

"Let's go," Simon said. He pulled out his cell phone as he left the room. "Joel," he spoke into the receiver. "What's the status on that search? Did you find out where the warehouse is?"

"Yeah, it's on the northern part of Cascade just off I-80. It's a pretty remote area," Joel answered.

"Alright. Send all available units to that location and you better send a couple of ambulances too. We're on our way."

Turning the phone off, Simon got into his car while Blair got into the front passenger seat. Mark, Matt Stark, and William all piled into the back. Starting the car and putting it into drive, he peeled out of the driveway. Blair held onto the dashboard, hoping that they weren't too late.

Jim stood in the doorway of the hidden closet listening to Maxi's little speech. Jim sighed in relief. That meant help was on the way, which was good because Jim was reaching the end of his endurance. Jim switched his attention to the twins as they both swore in stereo.

"What the hell? What the hell happened?" Dan asked.

"I don't know," Ricki answered indignantly.

"Where's the picture?"

"I don't know!"

"Well, get it back!"

"I'm trying!"

Jim smiled and shifted his attention to Maxi who had just entered the room where the others were being held.

"Guys, let's go," she said.

"Where are we going?" Kane asked.

"I know a way out of here, but we have to hurry. Come on."

There was the sound of several feet hurrying down the hall and the door to his 'prison' opened. Steve looked at Jim questioningly as he approached and then noticed the trapdoor.

"Is that an underground tunnel?" he asked.

"Yep, and it leads right outside."

"How did you find that?" Kane asked.

"Later," Maxi interrupted. "We have to go now."

They each walked down the stairs through the trapdoor and into the tunnel. Jim made sure to the close the closet door to hide their escape route and then closed the trapdoor behind him. They looked down the tunnel, but it was pitch black to everyone but Jim. The Sentinel surveyed his surroundings. The tunnel was made of solid rock making it look like some sort of cave.

"I can't see a thing. How are we going to find our way out of here?" Steve asked.

"Can you get flashlights?" Jim asked Maxi.

"No," she replied, shaking her. "We don't have any."

Jim sighed, running a hand over his close-cropped hair. He was reluctant to use his senses in front of the others. He had used his senses so blatantly already, and Steve was starting to ask questions. But they had no choice. They had to get out of there now. He just hoped he didn't zone out. Taking a deep breath, he stepped in front of everyone else and dialed up his eyesight.

"All right. Everyone stick close to me," he said.

Jim led the way down the darkened tunnel, making sure to warn his blind companions about any rocks or debris strewn on the ground so that they wouldn't trip. It was a twenty minute walk before Jim finally saw the end of the tunnel. It was a couple minutes before everyone else could see the exit up ahead.

"Look, there's a light at the end of the tunnel," Steve said, pointing.

Maxi smirked. "You know if the situation wasn't so dire, I'd laugh."

Steve looked at her. "Why?"

"Because you sounded so cliché right then."

Steve let out a bark of laughter and Kane snickered. Jim smiled as he looked back at his companions.

"She's right. You did," Jim agreed.

"Yeah, I know. I knew the moment the words left my mouth. I was hoping you guys wouldn't notice."

"Hey, you can't get anything passed me, man," Maxi said.

"I'll remember that."

"I noticed. I just didn't want to make you feel stupid," Kane said.

"Well, thank you," Steve said.

"Yeah, I'm not that polite," Maxi said teasingly.

Steve whacked her gently on the back of her head, messing up her hair.

"Hey," she exclaimed indignantly, fixing the brown strands.

Jim shook his head. It was good that they were able to joke around during a serious situation. They needed the release.

The tunnel ended in a ladder that led up to a metal grate. Jim climbed up first. It was hard opening the grate as the hinges were rusty from disuse, but he managed to get it open. Climbing out, he scanned the area with his senses. They were in a dense forest. There was no one in the immediate area and Dan and Ricki were still back at the warehouse. Focusing his senses on them, his heart sank. The brothers just discovered that their prisoners were missing.

Looking down through the grate, he said, "Come on. We heave to hurry. They're coming."

Maxi was next out, followed by Kane, and Steve was last. All three looked around.

"So where do we go?" Kane asked.

Jim looked at Maxi. "Where's the road?"

"It's that way," she answered, pointing back toward the warehouse. "It's on the other side of the warehouse, but I don't think it's a good idea to go there."

"Why not?" Kane asked.

"Well, for one thing, we'd be heading back toward our kidnappers," Steve said.

"Yeah, and we're miles from any kind of help, and that road is rarely used. That's why my brothers picked this place. If we try to follow the road, we'll be sitting ducks. They'll find us in an instant and take us back. And they'll probably kill me for helping you."

"She's right," Jim said. "We'd have a better chance if we stick to the trees."

Jim led the way through the trees. He tried to keep his senses dialed up, but they kept spiking on him. He knew his strength was waning. He had to find some sort of shelter where they could rest for a while and he could think. They couldn't keep running. Jim was exhausted and in pain, and he suspected his companions weren't doing much better. Steve was cradling his injured hand close to his body, his face pale. Kane was clutching his stomach as he struggled to keep up.

Jim stopped when he spotted a small cave nearby. Yes, he thought. They would rest there for a few minutes, and maybe that would give Jim a chance to get his senses under control.

Once inside the cave, they each sat down gratefully on the ground.

"We'll rest here for a bit," Jim said. He went to a dark corner, sat down, and tried to relax. He closed his eyes and pictured Blair's face and listened to his words. Taking deep breaths, he used his partner's meditation techniques to relax and gain control of his senses once more.

Steve watched the other detective from across the cave. The man was an enigma. He was a good cop and a good man, Steve could tell, but there was something strange about him. There were so many questions Steve had about him. Like how did Jim always seem to know that someone was about to enter their 'cell'? How was he able to see so clearly in the tunnel when Steve could barely see his hand in front of his face? And how did he know that their abductors were coming after them already? It was almost as if he could sense them, but that was impossible, wasn't it?

Jim opened his eyes. Steve thought he looked more relaxed now than he did before. He stood up and walked past Steve and the others to stand at the cave opening. He had his head tilted to the side. Steve had noticed that he always seemed to do that just before he'd announce that someone was coming. Steve stood up and approached his fellow detective slowly, not wanting to startle the man.

"Where are they?" Steve asked.

Jim looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Look, Jim, I'm not going to lie. I've noticed some things different about you." Steve put up a hand when Jim opened his mouth. "I'm not going to ask you a bunch of questions that you probably don't want to answer. Not right now at least. If it gets us out of this, then I'm all for it."

Jim relaxed. He really didn't want to go into the whole Sentinel concept at that moment.

"But after this is all over, we need to talk," Steve said. "I'm not going to force you to tell me. If you don't want to, that's fine, but I just think you owe me an explanation."

Jim looked out at the trees. Steve Sloan was a good man. Jim could tell that much from the time they spent together. He didn't know why, but he felt he could trust him. He definitely had to tell him something though. He had been using his abilities a little too freely in front of Steve and the others. Jim was lucky only Steve was asking questions.

Finally, Jim nodded.

"Ok. So where are they?" Steve asked again.

Jim tilted his head again in his listening pose. "They've just entered the forest. They're heading in our direction."

"What are the chances of them finding us?"

"Depends on their tracking skills and how well they know the area."

"They know it pretty well," a soft voice said from behind. They both turned as Maxi joined them. "Remember, our father used to work at the warehouse. We used to play here as kids. They know ever inch of this forest."

"Then why didn't they know about the underground tunnel?" Steve asked.

"They found the entrance, sure, but they never cared enough to see where it led. They thought it was just a sewer. I never said anything."

"We better get moving then," Steve said.

"No," Jim said.

"What?"

Jim turned around to face his three companions. "Look, we can't keep running. I mean look at us. We're not in the best shape. We're all tired and hurting. And I doubt Maxi can help all three of us." 

"So what are you suggesting?" Kane asked.

"If we're going to live long enough for help to arrive, we're going to take them out now."

"Agreed," Steve said.

"Ok, you two stay here," Jim said, pointing at Maxi and Kane.

"Wait. I want to help," Maxi said, stepping for forward.

Jim put a hand on her shoulder. "You've helped us enough already."

"He's right. You should stay here and let us handle things from here," Steve said.

"But I can't just sit here. I've done enough of that already. It's time for me to actually do something."

Steve and Jim looked at each other, coming to a silent agreement. Jim looked back at the young girl.

"Maybe there is a way you can help us. Both of you," Jim said, looking at Kane as well.

Dan and Ricki walked through the trees, each one holding a gun.

"They've got to be around here somewhere," Dan said.

The sound of a twig snapping in front of them had them raising their guns in preparation for an attack. They lowered their weapons slightly when they saw Kane Stark and their sister walking ahead of them, but there was no sign of the two cops. Dan took a step toward them, but Ricki stopped him.

"Wait. Let me handle this," he said. He took a few steps forward. "Maxi!" he called.

The two stopped walking and slowly turned toward the twins.

"Don't be stupid, Maxi," Ricki said, keeping his voice calm. "You know you can't get away from us. We know this forest just about as well as you do. If you come back now, we'll forget this ever happened."

Behind him, Dan rolled his eyes, which didn't escape Maxi's attention. She took a step back, shaking her head.

"Come on, little sister. You know we wouldn't hurt you. We've protected you your whole life."

Maxi looked at Kane and Kane looked back. Then they both took off in opposite directions.

"No, wait!" Ricki called after her.

"Alright. You've had your turn. She's mine now," Dan said, running in the direction Maxi had gone.

"Don't hurt her," Ricki called after him.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just don't lose him."

Ricki sighed and ran after Kane.

Jim stood crouched behind some shrubbery, waiting for his prey like a panther on the prowl. He finally spotted Maxi running through the trees toward him. He had been listening to her hurrying footsteps for the past twenty minutes. And Dan was right behind her. Maxi ran past Jim's position, but Dan stopped right in front of the Sentinel and aimed his gun at her. Jim pulled out the knife Maxi had given him to cut open the closet door. He gripped it by the blade and whipped it at his adversary. The knife sliced through the top of Dan's forearm and stuck in a tree, pinning his arm to the trunk. The gun dropped from nerveless fingers.

Jim ran from his hiding spot as Dan gripped the knife and tried to pull it out. Just as Dan got the knife out, though, Jim tackled him in the gut, causing him to drop the knife. Jim rammed him into a tree. Dan was able to block Jim's punch and send a punch of his own to the side of Jim's face. Shaking it off, Jim blocked Dan's next attack and punched him in the jaw, sending him to his hands and knees. Dan powered up and sent a powerful uppercut right into Jim's still tender abdomen.

Jim's legs collapsed as pain shot through his whole middle. He was on his knees clutching his stomach and trying to catch his breath when the next blow caught him in the face, sending him sprawling on the ground. Dan picked up a tree branch and hefted it with both hands like a club. He brought it down hard on Jim's stomach. Jim cried out and curled around his stomach. He could have sworn he heard as well as felt bones break on that blow. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to turn down the pain dials. Dan raised the branch again, intending to hit Jim in the head this time.

"Danny! No!" Maxi cried.

Dan stopped in his tracks and stared at his younger sister in shocked surprise. Jim took the opportunity to kick Dan in the kneecap, causing it to buckle. With a cry, Dan dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks. In seconds, Jim was on top of him and punching him repeatedly in the face until he was unconscious.

Jim pushed himself off the unconscious man and sat against a tree, holding his stomach and breathing heavily. His whole middle was just a massive ball of pain. He closed his eyes, took deep breaths, and worked the dials.

Maxi knelt down next to Jim. "Are you ok?" she asked with concern.

Jim opened his eyes and gave her a reassuring smile. "Yeah. I think he broke a few ribs though, but I'll be ok." He looked down at Dan. "You wouldn't happen to have something to tie him up with, do you?"

"As a matter of fact…" She reached into her pocket and pulled a set of handcuffs. She dangled them by one finger in front of Jim. "Will these do?" She smiled.

Jim smiled back as he took the cuffs. "Where did you get these?"

"I found them in the warehouse. I figured they had to be yours or Steve's."

"You didn't happen to find my gun lying around, did you?" Jim asked as he turned Dan over onto his stomach and cuffed his hands behind his back.

"No. If I did, I would have already given it to you."

"Good point."

"So do you think the others are ok?" Maxi asked.

As if in answer to Maxi's question, a shot rang through the air. Maxi looked at Jim, horrified.

With determination, Jim turned the pain down even more and stood up. He picked up the gun Dan had dropped and gave it to Maxi.

"Take this. Keep an eye on him." Jim indicated the still unconscious Dan. "Think you can do that?"

Maxi bit her bottom lip nervously. Then she took a deep breath and tried to appear calm as she nodded her head.

Satisfied, Jim picked up the bloody knife and ran in the direction the shot had come from.

Steve stood behind a tree, waiting for Stark. It felt like forever but really was only a few minutes before he finally heard hurried footfalls coming towards him. He tensed his muscles in preparation for the attack.

He watched Stark run past him closely followed by Ricki. Once Ricki was close enough, Steve left his hiding place and slammed the man sideways into a tree. Ricki elbowed Steve in the chin to get him to back off and aimed his gun at him. Steve kicked the gun away and went for a punch to the head, but Ricki blocked it and then performed a perfect spin kick to the detective's head. Steve shook his head to clear it and was able to recover in time to block Ricki's next attack. He punched him in the face a few times, backing him into the tree again. Ricki kicked Steve in the stomach, causing him to double over and then did a backhand to the side of Steve's head, knocking him to the ground.

Breathing heavily, Ricki ran toward his fallen gun. Kane stepped out from behind a tree holding a very large branch. He swung it at Ricki's legs, sending him flying forward. He did a flip through the air and landed hard on his back. Kane brought the branch down on Ricki's head, but he managed to block the attack with both arms. He grabbed the branch and forcefully wrenched it from Kane's hands. He jumped gracefully to his feet and swung the branch, connecting with Kane's head. He fell to the ground, dazed.

Dropping the branch, Ricki limped to the gun and picked it up. He aimed it at the fallen man. Steve tackled him just as he pulled the trigger. The shot went wild, just missing Kane's head by inches. Steve was on top of the man, each wrestling for possession of the gun. Then gun went off just as Jim came on the scene.

Jim paused when he heard the shot. He saw the two men go still and ran towards them. "Steve!"

He knelt down next to the two men and pulled Steve off of the other man. He sighed in relief when he saw Steve conscious and unharmed. He looked at Ricki and saw the spreading red stain on the man's chest. The gun was still clutched in his hand. His ears told him the man was dead.

"Are you ok?" Jim asked, looking back at Steve.

"I'm good," he replied, trying to catch his breath. He turned his head to look at the man beside him. "He dead?"

"Yep."

Steve sighed and turned away from the dead man. "You get Dan?"

"Yeah, we got him."

"Good," Steve breathed. He closed his eyes. "Can I go to sleep now?" he whined jokingly, but Jim could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

Jim smiled. "Not yet." His smile grew wider at Steve's exaggerated groan. "Come on." He offered Steve a hand and pulled the other man to his feet. "The cavalry's coming."

Steve swayed a little before gaining his balance. "Oh yeah? How do you know?" Then he remembered. "Oh yeah. You are going to explain this later, right?"

"I said I would."

"Oh man," came a groan from behind. Kane came walking up to them holding his head where there was a large gash on his forehead. "Next time, remind to stay out of the fight."

"Are you all right?" Jim asked. "Let me have a look at that."

Kane winced but allowed Jim to examine the wound.

"Thanks. You really helped me out," Steve said.

"Yeah, well, you guys helped get us out of there. I figured it was high time I did something. Ow!"

"Sorry. You could have a concussion but no serious damage that I can see. Come on. We better get back to Maxi before Dan wakes up."

Simon's car pulled up outside the warehouse, closely followed by Brown and Rafe's car, some patrol cars, and two ambulances. Five people got out of the captain's car. Simon walked around his car and started ordering his police officers.

"All right. I want this area searched thoroughly and efficiently. We can't afford any screw-ups." He turned to the other four people who had ridden with him. "You four stay here."

"But Simon…" Blair began.

"No buts Sandburg. We don't know what we're going to find in that warehouse. I'll give you a sign when we've cleared the building."

Blair opened his mouth to argue. Mark put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Blair sighed and watched as Simon and the other officers entered the large building.

"Man, I hate waiting," Blair said.

"Join the club," Matt Stark muttered.

Mark patted Blair's shoulder. "It's going to be ok," he said with more confidence than he felt.

The officers searched the warehouse thoroughly but didn't find anybody inside. Simon sighed as he exited the building. He knew Blair wasn't going to take this well, and he had a feeling that the others weren't either.

Blair saw Simon approached with a grim look on his face. His heart in his throat, Blair waited. He knew something wasn't right.

"The building's empty," Simon reported.

"What?" Matt Stark said.

"Do you think they already left?" Blair asked, fearing the answer.

"No. All their equipment is still inside. It's pretty expensive. I highly doubt they would just leave it behind," Simon said.

"Unless they knew we were coming," Mark pointed out.

"Do you think this Maxi tipped them off?" Stark asked.

"No. That doesn't make sense. Why would she let us out of there and then tell them we're coming? It would have ruined the whole thing."

"No," Blair said confidently. "They're still here. Somewhere."

"I have my men searching the surrounding area. If they're here, we'll find them," Simon said.

"Captain."

They all turned toward the voice. Brown and Rafe were escorting two people out of the woods, one female and one male. The male was in handcuffs. They went to meet them.

"Look what we found," Rafe said.

"Well, here's one," Simon said. He looked at the man's expressionless face. "Which one are you?"

He turned cold eyes on the captain. "Fuck you."

"Dan," the girl muttered. "His name's Dan."

Dan glared at her coldly, causing her to shrink back a bit. Simon ignored the man and turned to the girl.

"You must be Maxi. I'm Captain Simon Banks. Thank you for your help."

Maxi gave him a hesitant smile. "No problem."

Simon looked at Dan again. "Where are the others?"

"I have no idea. Wouldn't tell you even if I did."

Simon felt like punching the man for his attitude, and it looked like Blair was about ready to do the same thing. Before either man could do anything though, Maxi spoke.

"We split up. Jim and I were supposed to take out Dan while Kane and Steve went after Ricki. After Jim subdued Dan, we heard a gunshot, and Jim went to check it out."

Simon nodded his thanks and turned to Brown and Rafe. "Get this piece of shit out of here."

"Wait."

They all turned at the unexpected voice. William Ellison stepped forward until he was right in Dan's face. There was a look of such anger on his face.

"You harmed my son. For that, I should kill you where you stand," he said maliciously. He didn't seem to care that he was surrounding by police officers.

"Such temper, Mr. Ellison," Dan said calmly. "So you finally learned to care about your son."

"I always cared about my son! Way before you came along, and I didn't need some test to tell me that."

"Well, maybe your son did. Because it seems to me that he didn't think you did care."

Without warning, Ellison lunged at the man and tried to hit him even with a broken hand. Simon got in between and pushed Ellison back while Brown and Rafe pulled Dan away.

"That's enough!" Simon bellowed. "Get him out of here," he directed at his two detectives. Simon continued to hold Ellison back as Brown and Rafe pushed a grinning Dan to a squad car. "You need to calm down, Ellison, before I use the handcuffs on you."

William wanted very much to beat that guy into a bloody pulp. He turned at the gentle hand that touched his shoulder.

"Calm down. We all know how you feel," Mark said, trying to keep his own anger from exploding.

"Yeah," Stark said, stepping to William's other side. "You're not the only one who wants to kill that guy."

"But it won't help Jim," Blair said.

Ellison relaxed enough that Simon let him go. He sighed. His worry for his son and his anger toward the man that hurt him were clouding his rational thought.

"Dad."

William looked toward the voice and saw his son walking slowly toward them. Steve walked closely beside him, waiting to see if help was needed. Kane trailed a little behind them rubbing his throbbing head. All three looked pale and exhausted.

"Jimmy." It was barely a whisper, but Jim heard it even over the exclamations from Matt and Mark as they ran to their sons. Matt enveloped his son in a tight hug, almost squeezing the breath from the college student's body. Mark hugged his son as well, a look of total relief on his careworn face.

"Are you alright, Steve?" Mark asked.

"I'm fine, Dad."

"Are you sure? Let me have a look at your hand." Mark took the injured appendage in his hands, impressed by the quality of the bandage. "Did you do this?"

"Actually, I did." Maxi walked up behind them and stood shyly a few feet away as if she were afraid of what kind of a reaction her presence would invoke.

Mark smiled at her. "It's pretty good."

She blushed. "Thanks. I've always wanted to be a doctor."

"Dad, it's not that bad," Steve said.

"I'll be the judge of that. Come on. Let's get you checked out." Mark led Steve away before the younger man could protest. All he could do was give Jim a look that said, 'see what I have to put up with.'

Jim smiled at the easy camaraderie between the two men. He silently wished that he could have that kind of relationship with his father. He looked to the other two on the other side of him and saw Matt Stark embrace his son in a hug as well and then started fussing over his injuries as well. Jim would even take that kind of relationship. They didn't have the easy camaraderie that Mark and Steve had, but it was clear that they had a closeness.

"Jim, are you ok?" Blair asked as he and Simon approached him.

Jim looked at the worried faces of his friends. "Yeah, Chief. I'm fine."

Blair raised his eyebrows and Simon snorted.

"Yeah right. I find that hard to believe," Simon said.

"Yeah. Remember, we saw what you went through," Blair added.

Jim sighed. He put arm around Blair and leaned on the younger man for support as his legs felt suddenly weak. The adrenaline rush Jim wad been running on was wearing off, leaving the Sentinel drained, and all his aches and pains were making themselves known.

"Maybe a trip to the hospital wouldn't be such a bad idea after all," Jim admitted.

"Yeah, good call," Blair said.

"Why don't you two head on over to one of the ambulances," Simon suggested. "I'll stay here and secure the scene and then I'll meet you at the hospital. Oh Jim, where's Ricki?"

Jim glanced at Maxi uneasily. She wasn't going to take this news well. Even though Ricki was a murderer and a psycho, he was still her brother.

Jim took a deep breath and replied, "He's dead, sir." There was an audible gasp, and Jim made a point not to look at the young girl as he continued. "He and Steve were fighting over the gun and it went off. His body is off in that direction."

Simon nodded. He sent a sympathetic glance Maxi's way before he walked away. Jim turned to the girl and saw the sadness in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Maxi," he said.

She took a deep breath and shrugged. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't Steve's fault either. Dan and Ricki chose this."

Blair patted her shoulder. "It'll be ok. I'm Blair by the way." He stuck out his hand.

She gave him a trembling smile and shook his hand.

"Jimmy."

William walked toward his son. He had been momentarily frozen when he saw his son standing so close. He had watched the other fathers embrace their sons and felt guilty that he wasn't able to do the same thing.

Blair noticed the tension between father and son. He put an arm around Maxi and started leading her away. "Come on. I'll introduce you to the paramedics."

"You know the paramedics?" Maxi asked in disbelief.

"Well, you see them as much as Jim and I do, you get to know faces and names," Blair answered casually.

Jim smiled at the look Maxi tossed his way as she was led away. He then turned to his father. Examining him closely, Jim noticed the pale face, the worried expression, and the bandage on his right hand. He looked like he had gone through hell.

"I'm glad you're ok," William said.

"Thanks to you," Jim said.

"I didn't do anything. All I did was answer a few questions, and didn't get nearly enough right."

"But you knew enough to keep me alive."

"That's mostly due to your friend, Mr. Sandburg's, help. He told me a lot about you."

"About my present. But you knew enough about my childhood on your own."

William lowered his eyes. He still looked guilty. "Jimmy, I'm sorry," he said so softly only Sentinel hearing could have picked it up. More loudly, he said, "I'm sorry about what I said. I was wrong about Mr. Sandburg. I know that now. I saw how much cares about you. He's a good friend."

Jim smiled. "I know. I'm lucky to have him." He looked down at the bandaged hand. "What happened to your hand?"

William looked embarrassed. "I…uh…I punched a wall. I was angry," he added at Jim's raised eyebrows.

Jim grinned. Slapping his father on the back, he said, "You know, Dad, if it were me, I probably would have done the same thing. Of course, Blair would have been there to stop me."

"Oh he was there. He just wasn't in time," Williams said with a smile of his own.

Jim's smile disappeared as he suddenly swayed. William grabbed his arm to steady him.

"Whoa, are you ok?" William asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I just got a little dizzy."

William reached up and put a hand on his son's sweat soaked face. "You feel a little warm. Come on. Let's get you to the hospital. You've been through a lot these past couple of days."

"Maybe you're right."

A couple of days later

Blair bent down to retrieve the cup of coffee from the coffee machine in the hospital hallway. It had been two days since Jim and the others were found, and it had been a long two days. Each victim involved had been treated at the hospital. Steve's hand was stitched up with no permanent damage. He was released just a couple of hours after he was brought in. Kane Stark was treated for a concussion and the cuts on his torso. He was kept for twenty-four hours for observation and was allowed to go home with his father. And William Ellison had a cast put on his broken hand. He was released soon after, but he didn't stray too far.

Jim had a fever when he was brought in that was steadily rising. Some of the cuts on Jim's torso had gotten infected. He had had a high fever for the last two days and was in and out of consciousness most of the time. Blair stayed right by his side as well as Jim's father, and Simon wasn't too far away. Every few hours, he'd get a visitor, whether it be someone from Major Crime, one or both of the Sloans, or Maxi. But just that morning, Jim's fever broke and he was now resting comfortably to everyone's tremendous relief, and Blair felt that it was safe to go get some coffee.

"You know, coffee machine coffee is nasty."

Blair turned at the voice and smiled as he saw Maxi walking toward him. He and Maxi had gotten to know each other these past few days. They'd talk whenever she'd come to visit Jim. It really helped the anthropologist to relax.

"Yeah, I know," Blair answered. "But I didn't feel like going down to the cafeteria."

"It doesn't matter. Cafeteria coffee isn't much better."

Blair laughed as he put the lid on his coffee cup. They walked down the hall together, heading back toward Jim's room.

"So," Blair finally spoke. "Have you decided what you're going to do with your life now that you're free?"

"Well, I can't stay in Cascade. I already know that. Too many bad memories."

"Understandable."

"Yeah. I was thinking of going to LA. Mark said he could get me into med school at Community General where he works."

"Really? That's great!" Blair enthused.

Maxi was smiling. "I know. I'm excited. It's kind of late in the semester, but Mark said I should have no trouble catching up considering all the hands on experience I've had."

"I bet you'll do great."

"Thanks," Maxi said with a smile. "So how's Jim doing?"

"Better. His fever broke this morning. The doctors say he should be waking up soon."

"Good," she said with sigh as they reached their destination.

They pushed the door to Jim's room open and paused in the doorway. William Ellison was slumped over in a chair, his head resting on the bed, Jim's hand encased in his. He was sound asleep. Maxi and Blair smiled.

"That's sweet," Maxi whispered.

"Yeah. He's been by Jim's side about as much as I have."

"He can't be comfortable."

"I'm sure he's not. I've slept in those chairs before. They're not comfortable."

"Maybe we should wake him."

"Yeah. And we should probably try to get him to eat something too. He hasn't eaten much in the last two days."

Maxi looked at him. "I bet you haven't either."

"On the contrary," Blair countered, "Simon dragged me to lunch earlier today. He didn't go." He indicated the sleeping man.

"Well, maybe I should drag him dinner," Maxi suggested.

Blair smiled and walked further into the room. He knelt beside the snoring figure and put a gentle hand on his back.

"Mr. Ellison," Blair called quietly. "William. Hey, wake up."

William sat straight up. "What? Is Jim awake?"

"No, no. He's not awake. Not yet."

"Oh," William sighed. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep," he said with a yawn.

"It's ok. You looked like you could use the rest," Maxi said.

"Oh, hello," William said, just noticing the other occupant of the room.

"Hi. You know I was just going to get something to eat in the hospital cafeteria. Would you like to join me?"

"Um, no thanks," William responded, looking back at his son. "I don't want to leave Jim."

"You need to eat," Blair urged. "Besides, I'll be here. I'll call you if he wakes up."

Ellison sighed. "Alright. I am a little hungry."

"Great." Maxi grabbed Ellison's arm, helped him out of the chair, and escorted him out of the room, glancing back at Blair with a triumphant smile.

Blair smiled back and sat in the chair William had just vacated. He took Jim's hand in his own and then laid his head on the bed. He was exhausted. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since this whole thing stared. He was just about to close his eyes just for a second when he felt something settle on top of his head. He sat up and looked into pale blue eyes.

He smiled. "Hey Jim."

"Hey Chief," Jim said softly. "You should get some rest. You look terrible."

Blair's smile widened. "Oh gee, thanks a lot, big guy."

Jim chuckled and then winced.

Blair sobered quickly. "So how are you feeling, Jim?"

"Not bad. What happened? The last thing I remember is being loaded into the ambulance."

"A few of those cuts on your torso got infected. You've been suffering from a high fever for the past two days."

Jim looked at his partner and saw the worry on his face and in his eyes. It must have really been bad.

"And I bet you've been here just as long," Jim said knowingly.

Blair looked sheepish as he averted his gaze to the blankets on the bed.

"Yeah, I thought so. Go home, Chief. Get some sleep. And while you're at it, take my father with you after he's done eating."

Blair raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were asleep."

Jim smiled. "I woke up a few minutes before you and Maxi came in. I didn't want to wake Dad."

Blair shook his head. "Alright. I'll do my best. Right now, you should get some rest."

Satisfied, Jim nodded and closed his eyes. He soon drifted off into sleep.

The Loft

Jim lounged on the couch flipping through channels on the TV while Blair puttered around in the kitchen cooking dinner. Mark, Steve, and Maxi were coming over for dinner before they went back to LA. Jim thought now was as good a time as any to give Steve that explanation he promised. It was Blair's idea to let Mark and Maxi in on the secret as well. Maxi had done so much for them already that Blair felt they owed her an explanation as well. And, Blair explained, it would be good to have a doctor in on the whole Sentinel thing, even if he was in another state. He might be able to provide a medical opinion if Jim ever had problems with his senses in the future.

Jim sat up as he heard the elevator arrive on their floor. He got up and walked to the door. Opening it, he smiled at the surprised look on Mark's face, his hand poised to knock.

"How did you know we were out here?" Mark asked.

Jim's smiled widened. "That you will find out later. Please, come in." He stepped aside to let the three guests into the loft.

"I assume that's a part of this explanation you still owe me," Steve said.

"Yes, it is. Don't worry. I do that to my captain all the time. Drives him nuts."

"Yeah, well, how about we wait on the explanations until after dinner," Blair said, coming to greet them. "It'll be ready in a few minutes."

Dinner was filled with small talk, nothing of importance. When they were done, Blair cleared the table, insisting that Jim stay put when he started to get up, reminding him that he had to take it easy. He had only been out of the hospital a few days after all. He left the dishes in the sink to be washed later after their guests left and then returned to his seat at the kitchen table.

"So," Steve said once Blair was seated, "about that explanation."

"Right. Well, Sandburg, this is more up your alley. Go ahead," Jim said.

Blair smiled, bouncing slightly in his seat. "Ok, um, have any of you ever heard of Sir Richard Burton, the explorer not the actor?" They shook their heads. "Ok, well he wrote a monograph depicting individuals with genetically enhance senses. He called them Sentinels. Now in tribal cultures, Sentinels were protectors of the tribe, and they would use their heightened senses to track changes in the weather, movement of game, and warn against approaching enemies, things like that. Nowadays, this knowledge is forgotten, but I always believed that Sentinels really did exist, and I set out to find one. And well," he looked over at Jim, "I did."

"Heightened senses. Cool," Maxi whispered, mystified by the whole thing.

Mark and Steve didn't say anything. Steve still looked a little skeptical and Mark just looked thoughtful. Finally, Steve leaned forward.

"So you think that Jim is one of these Sentinels," Steve stated.

"I know he is," Blair replied.

"I don't know," Steve said, leaning back. "I find this a little hard to swallow."

"You saw the evidence for yourself, Steve," Jim said. "How else could I always know that someone was about to enter our room before the rest of you? How else could I see in a nearly pitch black tunnel? How else could I know that Dan and Ricki had entered the woods and were coming straight towards us or that they even split up? And how did I know you guys were at the door before you even knocked?"

"You heard us coming!" Maxi exclaimed.

Jim nodded.

"Awesome!"

"Ok," Steve said. "I can't ignore the evidence I guess." He looked at Blair. "Where do you fit into this?"

"Well, Burton talked about the Sentinel always having a partner with him to watch his back. A Guide so to speak. That's me. I help Jim with his senses. Teach him little techniques to help him learn control and watch out for zone outs."

"Zone outs?"

"Yeah, it happens when he concentrates too hard on one sense. He loses all of his others and sort of goes into a catatonic state."

"Remarkable," Steve said, a little awed. He looked at his dad who hadn't said a word. He still looked thoughtful. "Dad? What do you think?"

"Huh?" Mark looked at him, puzzled at first. "Oh. Well, I believe that it's possible for someone to have heightened senses."

"Dad?" Steve prompted.

"Well, it was about twenty years ago. A young woman came into the ER. She had been hit by a car. She was yelling and screaming when she came in, complaining that the lights hurt her eyes. After we dimmed the lights, she calmed down enough for us to treat her, but we could never figure out what had caused the photosensitivity. After she was treated, she was fine. No complaints of any further light sensitivity. We performed tests, but we couldn't figure out what caused it and eventually, we had to release her. To this day, it still bugs me."

"She probably had a heightened sense of sight," Blair explained. "Often times, great pain causes heightened senses to go out of control as we well know." He looked at Jim who nodded in agreement. "She probably couldn't get sight under control because of the pain she was in. Once she was treated and the pain level went down, she could better control her eyesight."

Mark leaned back. "Amazing."

"I've got hundreds of documented cases of one, two, sometimes even three hyperactive senses. I even had one subject with four, but Jim's the only who's had all five. The only full Sentinel."

"How do you handle it?" Mark asked. "I saw the kind of pain that girl was in, and she only had one heightened sense. How can you stand all five?"

"It's not easy," Jim answered. "Sometimes, it's downright unbearable. Hell, when I first got them, I thought I was going insane. Then, I met one scruffy, long-haired anthropologist who knew a thing or two about Sentinels." He looked at Blair meaningfully and smiled. "He told me about Sentinels. He taught me control, and now it's easier. Tolerable. Blair's presence makes it easier. Now, there have been a few problems."

"Yeah, like the cold medicine," Blair said.

"Yes, like the cold medicine," Jim grudgingly admitted.

"The cold medicine?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, I took some cold medicine once and it caused my senses to go haywire," Jim answered.

"Yeah, you see Jim reacts differently to different drugs sometimes," Blair added.

"Hmm. Interesting. I wonder why that is," Mark said thoughtfully.

"I don't know. Maybe you can tell us," Blair said.

"Well, I'll see what I can figure out. Well, we should be going." Mark looked at wrist to find out the time. "Ah damn," he whispered as he started looking around on the floor.

"What is it, Dad?"

"I lost my watch. It keeps falling off. I really should get that band fixed."

Jim smiled, remembering a time when he had told his ex-wife Carolyn where to find her watch. He tilted his head and heard the ticking outside his door.

"It's out in the hall. I'll get it," he said, getting up.

Mark, Steve, and Maxi watched dumbfounded as Jim opened the door and went out into the hall to retrieve Mark's watch. Mark looked at Blair who was grinning from ear to ear.

"How did he…" Mark began.

Blair just tapped his ear, still smiling. Mark raised his eyebrows.

"He heard it all the way out there?"

"Yep."

Jim returned carrying the watch. "Here you go."

"Thanks," Mark said, still in awe.

"Well," Steve said finally, "as Dad was saying, we should be going. Our flight leaves in about an hour."

"Well, it was nice meeting you," Jim said, holding the door open for them.

"You too. Hey, if you're ever in LA, looks us up," Steve said.

"Yeah, I've got a house on the beach with a deck that is perfect for barbequing. We'd love to have you," Mark said.

"We'll be sure to do that," Blair said.

Jim turned to Maxi. They stared at each other for a few minutes before either of them spoke. When they did, they spoke at the same time.

"Jim."

"Maxi."

They laughed. Jim hugged her and patted her on the back.

"You take care," Jim said. They pulled apart. "And good luck in medical school."

"Thanks."

Maxi turned to Blair. Blair smiled and hugged her as well.

"Thanks for everything," Blair said.

"You too. You have my email address, right?" Maxi asked.

"Yes, and you have mine?"

"Yep."

"Keep in touch."

"I will."

Jim and Blair watched the three leave, Maxi with a bounce in her step. When the elevator doors closed, Jim closed the loft door.

"So when do you think we'll get to LA?" Blair asked.

Jim smiled. "Oh I don't know. Say, when we both have the time."

"Oh yeah." Blair seemed to slump and then bounced right back. "Well, I can wait," he said cheerfully.

The End


End file.
